Elizabeth, an American Girl Doll is under that hot mess.
Today was our first day of Spring Break--yippee! It was cold and dreary and a perfect indoor day.....it was also a day that if not executed well could have been miserable. We had a few chores to do around the house and needed to pack for our mini-trip....hmmm not exactly an exciting first day off. Plus the older girls have been fighting a lot lately (yes, they fight. Yesterday when I picked up one of the girls from a play date, the nanny asked if my kids ever fought and when I said "Absolutely!! All the time!" she was shocked and said she didn't believe me, my girls seemed so perfect. Full disclosure here...I've also been known to yell, which I abhor, and feed my kids cereal for dinner.) Anyway, I knew I needed a plan to avoid a day full of fighting, whining and yelling. My plan...an American Girl Doll Salon! The girls dolls are a mess. Earlier in the week I googled how to untangle doll hair, because we are well aware over here that no amount of combing does the trick. The advice I found was to comb their hair with a wig brush and a solution of fabric softener mixed with a little water. I found wig brushes at the beauty supply store and bought a couple of spray bottles and fabric softener at Target. This morning after letting the kids sleep in as late as they wanted and then watch some PBS kids, I told them about the plan.
*They had to interview for the job which included a fashion inventory (what this really meant was...get dressed, do your hair, brush your teeth)
*The interview also included proving that they could keep the salon neat (this meant, clean your room)
*We needed signs for the salon
*We needed lemonade for the salon (quick trip to the store....we were out of milk and fruit, which we didn't need for lemonade but it made the trip become part of the plan)
The girls had so much fun, never fought, and did every single thing quickly and happily. It was a total win-win.
 |
The "secret" solution. Each brush was $5, the spray bottle was maybe .50 and the fabric softener was $4.50 (which if I had it to do again I'd choose scent free, kids loved it though)and will last for as long as we're brushing doll hair and then some. So all in I spent about $16. Not too bad considering the girls worked their magic on 4 dolls and have the secret solution and brushes to do it again any time they wish. While the dolls still don't look factory perfect, when I think about what the American Girl Doll Salon would charge to get it back in shape, along the shame we'd feel bringing those raggedy dolls in, I know it was money well spent!
|
The lovely stylists at work.
The salon clients were in real need of some beauty help!
Beautiful results, in every single respect!
No comments:
Post a Comment