Ice Skating Outfit For 18 Inch Doll Like American Girl

Little girls admire those cute, sophisticated and elegant figure skaters with their cute and sparkling outfits. The creative people from Wish Doll Company has created this beautiful multipurpose outfit. Comes with the pink satin leotard with sparkle trim and a sheer skirt, the matching pink hair tie and  cute little pink ice skate covers or leg warmers! Your doll can wear it as a champion ice skater, or she could use it as a very fancy ballet warm-up outfit! Visit Emily Rose to order this really cute Champion Skater outfit!

This guest post comes to us from one of our Emily Rose @Home founder’s, Sarah Dineen – go for it Sarah…

This post has required some thought on my part because up until last May, I spent the previous 13 years raising American Boys.  I think that many of the values that are instilled in my children are the same regardless of their gender, however, I do see that there are some new avenues I will have to explore!

I am fortunate enough to have this wonderful group of founding members and Lisa Marie to count on when it comes to ideas for doing things with my daughter.  Even though Jordan is only 9 months old, she will be playing with all of my Emily Rose products in no time and with all of the ideas that the Emily Rose Blog offers it will be very exciting to watch her develop into a great young lady!

I have had to depend a lot on my imagination and that of my 7 year old son, who is so excited about Emily Rose @ Home, to come up with ideas to attract people to our business.  Tyler didn’t waste any time telling everyone he could think of at school about the home parties and ER products!  I know it doesn’t seem traditional, but even though he is a boy, Tyler, has some great ideas for crafts and activities.  I have made a point of raising my children to not treat any activity, interest or profession as gender specific because no one should feel they are limited because of being a boy or girl.  This has really helped me see how kids like to play with dolls and gives me ideas to share with others.  The dolls that I use for demos get to “cook”, “have get-togethers with their friends” and even “respond to emergencies” when my boys play with them.

I think that Emily Rose really encourages imagination and hands on play in a world where kids are so overwhelmed with electronic options of entertainment.  It is really important to allow our children to have the down time that allows them to make up storylines and act out ideas with their dolls, stuffed animals or any other character toy that they choose.  It is phenomenal that the trading cards were developed.  These starting points of play and conversation are so important to independent thinking and really are a great addition to the ER line of products.

I want to thank you for allowing me the opportunity to express my thoughts and for taking the time to read my entry!!

Sarah Dineen

We, as Parents, have a huge responsibility to teach our kids about MONEY.  If we don’t teach them no one else will – or they will learn from someone who has different life values than the ones you would like your children to have.

I think the most important lesson that we can teach our kids is the power of COMPOUND INTEREST.  Here’s a quick example that you can sit down and discuss with your American Girl today.  This year Emily did a lot of work for Emily Rose.  She designed outfits, she writes, produces and edits Emily Rose TV, plus we use her image, stories and likeness throughout our websites.  We decided that in exchange for all of that work she should be compensated.

On the advice of a good friend we opened a Roth IRA account at the end of the year in Emily’s name and deposited $4,800 (roughly a $100 a week paycheck after payroll taxes and such).  If we don’t ever pay her again and she doesn’t touch that money until she is eligible to withdraw it penalty free at 55 – that $4,800 will be worth $58,802.18 at a conservative 6% interest rate… all because of the power of compounding.  If we are able to continue contributing to her Roth IRA until she is 18 (granted that’s a big IF ) and then stop at 18 (6 years from now) – at 55 her Roth IRA will be worth $295,145.73… Whoa!  Listen to this… if Emily decided to take our money lessons to heart and after she turned 18 she continued to deposit $4,800 a year until retirement, at age 55 she would have over $1.5 Million dollars!

Now I understand that $4,800 is a lot of money and I don’t expect that we will be able to be disciplined enough to find/save that amount every year.  But the lesson is what is important here. Even if you only put $500 a year ($42 a month) in to an investment vehicle in your child’s name – that child would still have $38,430.43 at retirement age.  If you would like to use a fun calculator to illustrate this concept for your kids – you can find one here.

Of course don’t forget the dark side of compound interest – please, please teach your kids the most important lesson which is the inverse of the one above.  Credit cards are compound interest nightmares.  If Emily were to have purchased her favorite $100 American Girl Doll on a credit card at age 7  and only paid the minimum until she was 18 – that doll would have cost her $422.62 at an average credit card interest rate of 14%.  If she waited until retirement to pay for it it would cost $36,367.91 (there goes her first paycheck savings!)  Eeek!

Disclaimer – I am in know way, shape or form a financial expert – all of the information contained here is estimated and based on my own calculations which may or may not contain errors.  It’s the concept that’s important – so if you send me comments fixing my math I will cry (it never was my best subject).  Also this is in n way to be construed as investment advice!

If you are like me you are pretty fed-up with walking in to your American Girl’s bedroom only to step on one of many tiny, pokey shoes that seem to multiply by the hour.  Here’s is a fun and easy craft that will solve two problems in one.  Entertain your American Girl for an hour or two PLUS clean up that shoe mess in her room!  The craft comes to you courtesy of Making Friends – click here to learn how to make an 18 Inch Doll Shoe Holder.

Click photo to enlarge.

I really don’t know anything about photography (it’s on my list of “things to learn when I have time”). I know that you have to have a steady camera if you want to use a long exposure so I put the camera on the wall to try and capture this glimpse of sunset. I accidentally included the cool visual interest that the top of the wall adds to the bottom of the photo.

For more Wordless Wednesday fun visit 5 Minutes for Mom.

Raincoat For Your 18 Inch Doll Like American Girl Doll

Everyone will be a-buzz with excitement for this new outfit from Emily Rose! Lined with bumblebees and bumblebee pockets, your doll will want to dance in the rain in this shiny yellow coat. Oh, and don’t forget to order the matching boots! Order your very own Bumblebee Raincoat, BEE-sit Emily Rose for more information!

Emily has already asked me multiple times for a Facebook account. “All my friends have Facebook accounts”, she will whine pointlessly, knowing full well how far that argument will get her in our house. I was surprised when I checked and found out that the minimum age for a Facebook account (according to Facebook) is only 14. I don’t know why I hadn’t expected that but it scares me. I started to do some research online on Facebook usage amongst the younger set and came to the conclusion that rules and guidance are not only required but should be discussed and monitored in length.

I was so relieved when I came across this very well-thought out and totally thorough Facebook Contract from the website Pass The Torch.

I know it is probably very early for most of our readers to be thinking about this issue – but you might want to do as I did and bookmark this contract and add it to your future calendar for the dreaded Facebook sign-up date. Trust me… time passes awfully quickly.

In addition to being the Wisconsin representative of Emily Rose @ Home, I also own a party planning business (not to mention a marketing consultation company) called Happy Party Monkey.  The initial focus of this business was to provide a service that would create gift bags for events.  Rapidly it delved into party planning as well.

I live in Madison, WI.  As few of your probably know, American Girl corporate is housed here (well, technically Middleton, I digress).  Due to this, American Girl dolls are, probably, more popular here than elsewhere.  All the girls in out neighborhood have, at the very least, one doll, and more than likely a few.

Due to the preponderance of dolls, I like to plan events that the dolls are part of.  To plan for a proper girl/doll party, you must keep the doll in mind the entire time.

Like any party, start with the invite.  Whatever invite you are using, create tiny version, either by scanning and shrinking, or using a program (such as Photoshop) in which you can create a big and little version of the same invite.  We were fortunate enough to find loads of miniature envelopes at a garage sale this summer, however, they are easy enough to make as well.  Girls LOVE their dolls receiving their own invites to a party.

Any party I have for this age group, I have a pretty detailed spreadsheet order of how the party should roll out.  When the girls arrive, I generally have a craft to work on until all the girls arrive.  An enjoyable craft for a girl/doll party is creating a poster for their dolls space at home or making special bejeweled barrettes for the doll.

After all of the girls have arrived we generally move on to main events.  Depending on the party this could be making a video (a big thing in our area), karaoke on the Wii (and make sure to take pictures), or some games.  I, generally, try to use one of the quiz books that American Girl has published (a great quiet time activity that allows me to prepare other items).  The girls all love talking about themselves and their answers to the quizzes.

Naturally any party is not a party without food.  Create a buffet with big and little food is simply fun.  Part of the fun is the initial hunt of what foods come big and small.  It’s a really great way to involve your daughter in the party as well.  My daughter found big and littles of pretzels, Oreos and other cookies and M&Ms.  I am certain there are more foods.  These seem to work well for any party though.  Another great addition for the party is the use of plastic shot glasses for glasses for dolls.  They are a perfect size, and girls seem to go mad for these.

After eating the girls still need to be occupied until the end of the party.  One of my favorite post-food craft activities is taking a picture of the girl and a picture of the doll, printing the pictures and having the girls adhere the pictures onto a lockets (by locket I mean a piece of plastic attached to a plastic necklace) and the girls then have matching necklaces with each other pictures.

Throwing a party for your girl and her girl should be fun and prompt creativity – not stress.  There are loads of websites (this one included) that provide great ideas of activities of crafts to make that can be adapted to for your party.

Happy Party Monkey is owned by Andrea Barber.  Need some party help – take a look at her blog for some ideas (http://www.HappyPartyMonkey.blogspot.com)  Andrea and Peyton Barber are the mother-daughter Emily Rose @ Home team for the Wisconsin area.  Would you like to schedule a party in this area?  You can reach Andrea and Peyton through this link (http://emilyrosehomeparty.com/homepartyblog/host/Andrea-Barber/).  You can also reach Andrea by email at EmilyRoseAtHomeMadison@gmail.com.