Celebrating the success of American Girl's Shine On Now program

Over the past month I've had the incredible honor of being a Parent Partner for American Girl's Shine on Now campaign. I really enjoyed visiting ShineOnNow.com with The Pea from July 13 to 31 to donate stars (which translated to a $1 donation made by American Girl) to some really worthy charities. I'm happy to say that, thanks to girls all over the US, American Girl met their goal of 1 million stars donated -- that's $1 million! Now that's a reason to celebrate! And what better place to celebrate reaching the 1 million stars goal than at the American Girl Cafe?

Last week, I joined four other American Girl Parent Partners for brunch at the American Girl Cafe in New York. Jamie from Blonde Mom Blog, Bridgette from Experimental Mommy, Kristin from Our Ordinary Life, and Amanda from Mommy Mandy and I all hail from different parts of the US -- but we're united in that we're all mom bloggers, we're all parents to our own young American Girls, we all want to give back to their communities, and we're all fans of American Girl.

Brunch was fabulous in every sense of the word (see my American Girl Cafe post over at Finding Bonggamom for photos and details about the dining experience), from the decor to the food to the company. During brunch, each of us gave some feedback about the program and spoke about our experiences participating. Here's what I had to say:

Afterwards, we were given a special tour of the American Girl store by one of their personal shoppers. People must have wondered why a group of women (with no accompanying kids) were being toured around the store. It's simple, really: we're all just little girls at heart.

Next time I'm definitely taking The Pea to brunch here, but on that sunny summer Sunday, I fully enjoyed being a little girl again, dressing up and eating dainty girly food, posing with my new friend Jamie and our (borrowed) American Girl dolls. We had a lovely time; thanks so much, American Girl, for naming me as one of your Parent Partners for the Shine On Now program!


Update: here's a list of the other Parent Partners in American Girl's Shine On Now program:

• 5 Minutes For Mom
• Mom Central
• Mom Generations
• MomFluential
• Momma Findings
• Mommy Mandy
• Mom’s Best Best
• Social Media Mom
• Classy Mommy
• Talking With Tami
• Solutions Sleuth
• Coffee With The Mrs
• Lady and The Blog
• Blissfully Domestic
• Manic Mommies
• Look What Mom Found
• Blonde Mom Blog
• Books on The House
• Child Mode
• Cindy W. Morrison
• Dad of Divas
• Finding Bonggamom
• Keeper of the Cheerios
• Kingdom First Mom
• The Mom Buzz
• Mayhem and Moxie
• Experimental Mommy
• Sprinkles
• Dad Labs

Disclosure: I was invited to brunch as a Shine On Now Parent Partner. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.