American Girl Shaved Ice Stand

 My girls come by their love of American Girls honestly. My grandfather bought me my first doll when I was 8 and I have been crazy about American Girls ever since. I passed that onto my girls. We all love when the new American Girl catalog comes in the mail. The girls glance through and see things they would like and talk about how they can pull their money together to get what they are looking at. Each of my girls will have their opportunity to pick their first 18 inch doll when they turn 8. For PF's 8th birthday, we took her to NYC to visit the American Girl store. She picked out Julie which was the newest doll that year. Since then she has gotten Ivy and Elizabeth. All three dolls have a significant meaning to her. Butterfly is now counting down months until she gets to go shopping for her doll. It's a special time we get to share together.

Fridays are for fun projects, activities or field trips. I love having fun Fridays. After an afternoon at the pool, PF wanted something to do. She had seen the shaved ice stand in the AG catalog and thought it would be fun to make her own. She informed her daddy that she was saving him $115.

 In a bucket in the garage I keep odds and ends that the girls can use when they make their creations....toilet paper rolls, random plastic containers, boxes, extra pieces to other things and so on. PF sorted through the stuff we had and found what she needed. She painted a box pink and made signs from craft foam. She made a roof out of cardboard and pine straw. I think she went through half my sticks of hot glue but it sure was worth seeing her creativity.

 She made sure her doll would look good behind the stand and then got to work on all the accent pieces.

 I think she worked 7 hours to create all of this.

 Shaved ice machine.

 The container to hold the flavor bottles. She is still making a few more bottles.

 the guitar

I am really proud of her hard work!