One of the big things that we did on our family vacation in Minneapolis was to visit the American Girl store and to have tea time in the American Girl Bistro. It was a wonderful experience!
Autumn and I at the American Girl Bistro. There is even a seat for Summer the doll.
Our waitress introduced herself and explained how the meal/experience would work. We thought it was nice that she took extra time to talk to Autumn and to learn her doll's name.
She took our drink order and they had some wonderful Lemonades and Iced Teas to choose from
(you could also get soda pop).
While our food was being prepared, our waitress brought us each a little take home craft to work on while we waited. This was a nice touch and made the time fly by. Shannan even worked on one of the crafts. He's such a good daddy because he set the whole tea-time experience up for us in the first place...made all of the reservations and everything!
Working on our little paper crafts all about Molly and Emily (our favorite characters!)
Next came the food tray with all of the lovely little goodies to eat. All tea time guests are given the same menu of items, so there is no choosing or having to guess which ones to get...you get a sample of everything!! You start with the bottom plate, with muffins, fruit and yogurt dip (one item for each guest). Then you jump to the center plate where there were three different kinds of tea-time sandwiches. Then the top plate is desserts.
Desserts. Chocolate Mousse with cookie crumbs on top inside a little plant pot (so yummy), a cupcake and a J-ello fruit.
And of course your doll gets her own special chair, tea cup and saucer.
We had such a good time that Autumn decided that she would like to do a "Doll's Tea Party" for her birthday. Hmmm, I think maybe I can make that happen....that's a post for another day.
While in Minnesota I came across this cute little children's book called Rackety-Boom. For less than a bottle of soda pop, I couldn't pass it up!
The book is a Whitman Publishing book copyright 1953. It's about an old blue pickup truck named Rackety-Boom.
Rackety-Boom takes them to the fair and back. Wouldn't it be fun to go back in time to experience and old-fashioned county fair in the 40's or 50's just to compare to modern day fairs. I'm sure we'd find many differences.
Rackety-Boom takes the family on a picnic...who doesn't love a country picnic!?
It's a cute book and will go into the vintage collection of books.
That's all for today! Have a Happy Vintage day everyone!
After almost a month long absence, I figured it was high time I sit down and write a blog post. As usual, much has been going on. Back in June we had done a little house hunting and, after two weeks of looking, we decided to give up on the idea, at least until next spring. Well, things have changed, and we have found a house that is being sold by someone we know (which will make the buying and selling roller coaster so much easier). Therefore, our current, cozy little house is up for sale and we are waiting to see what happens. We have another month or so to try and sell and are keeping our fingers crossed. I can't wait to share with you all of the fun and excitement that will come with finally getting our little 1955 "baby ranch". I call it a baby ranch because that's exactly what it is...a short little three bedroom, small kitchen with a breakfast nook, small living room, full basement baby ranch. It's one of those little "cookie cutter" houses built during the housing crunch of the late 40's early 50's. In a couple weeks I will be able to post pictures! I can't wait to see the home's abstract so that I can learn the history of the house. I think every house should have a scrapbook that each occupant could update. Then we could know things like.... Who were the first people to live in the house? What did the kitchen looked like when it was first built, was there ever a garden in the backyard? When was the tree planted? These are crazy things I'd like to know!
It's all very exciting, but along with the excitement comes a bit of sadness too. I will miss our cozy little house that I've grown to love. I will miss the bright sunny kitchen, the sunny laundry room and the shelves above the kitchen cupboards that I have decorated with all of my vintage goodies. I will definitely miss the little china hutch as I have no space in the tiny breakfast nook for such a hutch at the new house. But a china hutch isn't necessary. I have learned that I don't need a large home to be happy and this new little house will not be large by any means, we will gain only a few hundred square feet. But we will make it our own and enjoy its special little qualities. That's part of the fun of life...being happy with what you are given.
So, it's been a busy summer of dreaming and packing and hoping and praying....oh and cleaning, my goodness, the cleaning. The house has to be kept clean for showings and that takes up a good amount of my time.
I'll leave you today with something that I find quite interesting....a 15 minute home movie from a family in Ellendale ND...a town of around 1400 people (sounds like my kind of town). The movies were taken sometime in the 1950s and it is fascinating to see the dresses, kitchens, and houses, the kids playing on the sidewalks and the celebrations that occurred many years ago for this family. I especially like the Christmas scenes. Once again, the house doesn't look all that big, but that didn't stop them from squeezing everybody into those happy little rooms to celebrate Christmas together. It looks like fun! I'd LOVE to find a home movie like this of our soon-to-be (hope to be) little house.
Until next time, enjoy the movie and have a happy, vintage day!
