Islandshire Gazette: Nanea Day at 'American Girl Place' in Columbus, Ohio

Trudy here. Today's story is loaded with pictures, and -- thanks to Nanea, Benny and Hallie -- I've got all kinds of notes about the really fun "Nanea Day" at the AG store in Columbus. It's not every day that you get a celebration day in your own honour, so this is something that those three have been looking forward to for weeks now. In fact, it's pretty much monopolized conversation around here! I'm having some help writing this article, because I didn't actually go to the event . . . so, Mom (Sarah) is helping me!

Left to right: Nanea, Benny and Hallie (wearing their new leis)

This cool event started at 2 o'clock in the afternoon on Sunday, August 26th, 2018. We got there not quite an hour early, and there was almost no one in the store. That allowed plenty of time for photo opportunities!

Crowds started to arrive about two, and there were quite a few little girls carrying their Nanea dolls (although I think there could not have been more than six or eight Naneas altogether). Lots of other dolls, though, because we spotted Felicity, Maryellen, Gabby, Lea and a lot of Truly Me dolls.

Several special set-ups were out for the event. There was a little Nanea doll on display by one door, and you could write your name on a little card that went into a box. That was for a drawing to win the doll. Then, there were two big tables with red cloths on them --- one in the Truly Me section, another in the hands-on area of the Beforever section. At the TM table, little girls were given a sugar cookie in the shape of a flower and some tubes of white icing and blue sprinkles. They could decorate their cookie in any style they wanted, and then --- eat it!

At the Beforever table, you could make your own paper Lei. This was quite fun, and Nanea, Benny and Hallie made their own (see photo above). Large paper Hawaiian flowers (cut from five different colors) were in baskets on the table, along with red and yellow ribbons and pieces cut from multi-colored paper straws. Each girl (or doll, in our case) picked out a ribbon and could string whatever combination of paper flowers and straw dividers that she wanted. There were a number of little girls doing this craft, but after about an hour of the event the table was almost empty. When you had finished making your lei, everyone got a little plastic bag with a paper card in it featuring some Hawaiian words, a "Territory of Hawaii" ID card, and a little cloth "ID holder" made from the same fabric used on Nanea's meet shirt. Interestingly enough, the girls manning the table had trouble giving these away. They did their best, and some girls took them --- but a lot got left on the table. After all the crafts, there was also the option to stay and eat a Hawaiian Luau dinner at the Bistro (for $20/person I know that pulled pork was one of the things on the menu along with Pineapple sherbet), but we had packed food in our car for this occasion.

Benny and Nanea got to meet a lot of little children there. Several little girls were there for their birthdays to pick out their first doll. One of them got a Gabby, whom she had decided on from the catalog a couple of weeks ago. She was there with her Mom and Gramma, who made had her look at every doll on display before deciding, but she still loved Gabby the most! It was so cute, because she had made a bed for Gabby at home (all waiting and ready), so they bought pajamas for her. They were also having lunch at the Bistro, so they had packed little tiny food for Gabby, because she was hungry, too! And (nothing ever cuter), she and her Mom had made a doll-sized blanket for Gabby and ordered a doll-sized neck pillow online. That was in the car --- just in case the dolly got sleep on the way home. So cute!

Aside from making their own lei, Nanea and Benny really loved posing in a lot of the displays. The 3-in-1 game table was their favorite (Benny's been counting the days down for this most favoritest of favorite plans), followed by the Mars Habitat. Nanea is afraid of boxes (she's claustrophobic from her experience of waiting in a box), so she's been conquering her fears for the last two weeks, because she really wanted to visit the store and see the game table. But all those dolls in boxes! She had a fun time and just didn't look down to the lower shelves where the boxes are.

All in all, it was a really fun event --- though there were not very many girls interested in Nanea. Actually, this was the first time that we've ever visited the store and the Luciana area was empty the whole time, too. Nobody showed any interest in her at all. That's always packed, and you usually can't get in there for the little girls picking out their new Luciana dolls. Not today, though.

Tenney, Logan, Gabby and Z still have their full display areas, but there is hardly any variety left. Tenney's mix-n-match clothes are down to two or three choices filling the wall.

Displays in the store were very neat when we got there and nicely done. Lately, they've been sloppy, uninspired and missing pieces. Another cool thing they had done was move some TM, Wellie Wisher and Bitty Baby displays into the walkways throughout Beforever. This was really nice, because they don't have enough historical displays to fill the area, and it usually looks rather bare. Plus, this gives the idea that you can play with the accessories from one collection with the other collections. If they could only move a few historical dolls into the Truly Me area, they'd have it made! A lot of people don't realize that you can buy a Maryellen doll (just using her as the example) and use her with some of the modern clothes and/or accessories. The same applies the other way. A lot of Moms have it stuck in their head that the historical girls can only use what is in their actual collection.