mommy-daughter date to American Girl

Before Thomas left on deployment he and I talked about me and his daughter, Faith, going to see his parents for her Spring Break. I was really excited about the opportunity because she doesn’t see her grandparents often and it gave me a chance to finally bond with my future step-daughter one-on-one. I decided to take her on a date before our big trip so we could get comfortable with each other, and since she loves American Girl I thought the American Girl Bistro in Dallas at the Galleria would be the perfect place for us to go! I told her ahead of time to bring her favorite American Girl doll with her and she told me she choose Kirsten because she was the “best behaved.” Ha ha ha! We arrived and were taken to our seats once we got there. Our company for the night included Faith and myself, as well as Kirsten and Thomas (via the phone). While Faith caught up with her daddy, I began looking around and quickly decided it was the poshest little bistro I’d ever been in! Girly, pink & sparkly!

While I was taking in the scenery and snapping photos, Faith was explaining the menu choices to her daddy on the phone. Meanwhile, Kirsten was behaving nicely (I’m not surprised since that good behavior is what won her a trip to the store with us!)

They had a really neat menu set-up where you paid a set price and you each get an appetizer and a main entree. We started by ordering our drinks. Faith opted for PINK Lemonade and I choose my predictably boring water with lemon. While we decided on what appetizers to choose, we took a break and played a game with our napkin rings. The rings were made of paper and on the backs they had words on them. The game was to create a sentence using the word on your paper ring. My word was loyal and Faith’s word was friend. Faith got creative and used both her word and my word and said, “I am loyal to my friends.” I thought it was a great sentence.

For appetizers Faith chose chicken noodle soup and I chose spinach artichoke dip with toast points. Faith was skeptical of my choice since it had the word spinach in it, but I assured her it was delish. She tried it and couldn’t believe how much she liked it! She even said she wanted to tell her mom she liked spinach! Score!

After the appetizers we were served our main course. This time Faith was the predicable one choosing chicken nuggets with a fruit skewer, while I went for the salmon with mashed potatoes and veggies. It was AMAZING. I was pleasantly surprised at how flavorful and beautifully plated the food was…it definitely made me feel like a princess! Faith was really excited to dig in and almost didn’t let me get the picture!

Once we finished our dinner we discussed dessert (man this girl is after my own heart!) and we eventually decided on the brownie sundae. Chocolatey, but not too chocolately. Our runner up was the mini ice cream cones, mostly because I’m a sucker for anything in mini-version – I think it’s so cute! However, in the end we just decided to share the sundae – another awesome choice made by Faith! It showed up and I swear the choir of angels let out a little song and cast a beam of light on it…or maybe I was just imagining that…

We dug in right away and mmmm’d and ahhhhh’d our way through half of it before we came up for air. At that point I’d had my fill and Faith considered for a moment whether or not she was done…she wasn’t! She managed to get a couple more bites in before she decided she was done. Poor Kirsten…she sat there and watched us devour that whole meal and I think we only offered her a bite one time!

After dinner we really wanted to look around the store, but we were running out of time to get Faith home and ready for bed since she had school the next morning. We did have time to stop by the display at the front real quick so she could show me the doll she liked. That store was pure heaven for her! I’m actually surprised I never even heard of it until just a couple of years ago.

As we walked out to the car we decided we’d definitely have to come back again. Faith even suggested the next time we come early in the morning and plan to stay there all day…at least we wouldn’t go hungry. I think next time it would be fun to see what other things we can do in the store together. I know they have a salon for the dolls and I think for the girls too. And then there’s always the shopping…what girl doesn’t like shopping to some degree? No matter what we decide, I’m really looking forward to getting to spend more time with her before the wedding and getting to know my future daughter even better!