American Girl Bitty Twins Doll Review

Luke & Lucy

These are our first Bitty Twins.  We finally decided on the names Luke and Lucy for them.  Luke is our first AG boy.  We have really been wanting a boy doll, and have been looking into customizing a boy.  We may still customize an 18" boy if we have the opportunity.  We acquired the twins through the Craigslist ad that I mentioned in the previous post, where we got 5 dolls (including these 2) plus a few accessories all for the bargain price of $109.  I wasn't planning to get the Bitty Twins but when I arrived and saw how adorable they were, I just had to bring them home... knowing my girls would love them.  Here they are in their box.

We would like to introduce you to Luke and Lucy...

After doing some research on Bitty Twins, I found out that they are from the original release in 2003.   The 2003 set had a blond boy and a blond girl with a topknot.  The line was remarketed in 2006, and the dolls were aged up. The girls were changed to have longer hair that reached to the upper back, which was styled in two ponytails.  Since Lucy has short hair with the single topknot, this confirms that they are from the original release, which also lines up with when the previous owner purchased them.  They both have 2002 Pleasant Company marked on their necks.

They came to us dressed in matching winter outfits.  I found out these are the 2004 Fall Frolic Outfits.  Luke has a blue fleece shirt with a teal fuzzy car appliqued on the front with lime green embroidered wheels and window on the car.  There is lime green stitching around the collar, sleeves and hem.  His velour pants are white with little blue, teal and lime green cars.  He has green and blue shoes.  Lucy has a pink fleece dress with an orange fuzzy flower applique and orange stitching around the sleeves and hem.  The dress has an attached velour hoodie that is white with a pink and orange flower print.  The velour scrunchie for her topknot matches the hoodie flower print.  Her leggings are the same flower print as her hoodie and scrunchie, but they are made of a stretchie legging fabric instead of velour.  She has pink shoes.

The twins came with some accessories, which were pieces from two different Bitty Baby sets.

From the Happy Birthday Set, which was released in 1995, there's a pink gingham dress.  The dress has a white scalloped collar with embroidered pink rosettes with green leaves.  The hem is trimmed in white scalloped lace.  This dress reminds me of the pink gingham dress that I brought my youngest home from the hospital in, so I got it out to compare.  The dress on the left is a size Newborn and on the right is the Bitty Baby dress.

Here's a picture of Gianna in her dress.

And here is Lucy in her dress.

She looks cute wearing the bonnet from Elizabeth's Night Shift with it too.  I got that set from the same person that I got Nellie from.  Elizabeth's Night Shift set was retired in 2011.

 
From the Wild Things Set, which was released in 2000, there's a book, Bitty Bear's Zoo Fun; a pair of sunglasses with penguins for Lucy, a tiny pink baseball cap which went on a little bear that was missing, and a set of three penguin nesting dolls.

The little board book has pages that slide open.  Lucy had fun looking at the book and playing with her nesting penguin dolls.

The sunglasses look adorable on Lucy.  Perfect for when she goes outside to play.

At first, I wasn't sure what to do with the pink hat, since the previous owners didn't have the bear it went on.  I thought about trying to find a replacement bear that it would fit.  Then it hit me!  Would it fit the mini American Girl dolls?  I ran and interrupted mini Julie from the tea party the mini dolls were having, and YES, it fits!!!  Hooray!!!  She looks adorable!

This little hat is perfect for exploring outdoors,  going shopping, or just because it looks so cute.

Julie had so much fun modeling her new hat!

My girls love Luke and Lucy and have been taking them everywhere and having lots of fun with them.  I can highly recommend these cute, cuddly little twins!

American Girl Josefina Doll Review

As promised in the previous post, here is a more in depth review of our new arrival, Josefina.  If you have already read that post, then you'll know that Josefina was part of a lot of five American Girl dolls that we got for an awesome bargain of $109 for all 5 dolls and a few accessories. Since this was a Craigslist find, I was very surprised that she came in her original box and in very good condition.  Here is her box.  It looks a little different from my other AG boxes, with a logo of the girls instead of the window.   

Here is a closeup of the logo on the box.

 And here's the sweet, sleeping Josefina we saw when we opened the box.

Josefina came with a booklet that is filled with information about her life. She is from 1824, a 9 year old girl growing up in northern New Mexico.  The booklet has lots of details about Josefina's story and includes an introduction to the Meet Josefina book.

Wide awake and ready to come out and play...

She came wearing her meet outfit, which I just love on her. Of course, as with all AG clothes, her clothes are very well made.  The white blouse is gathered around the neckline and sleeves, which gives it a nice poufy appearance.  The blouse is actually like a long slip, so it stays tucked into her skirt very nicely.  Her skirt is deep burgundy with a black floral print.  It is gathered around the waist, which gives it a very full skirt.  Very old fashioned and pretty.  There is a layer of white lace that hangs just below the hem of the skirt.  The blouse and skirt both close in the back with Velcro closures.  She has a brown sash, with a darker brown woven detail, tied around her waist and the most adorable boots.  Look how cute these boots are!

She is a pre-Mattel Pleasant Company doll.

The family that we got her from used to live in Chicago, so she came from that store at least 10 years ago.  Interestingly, the only American Girl Place we have ever been to happens to have been the one in Chicago.  The two youngest girls and I went with my husband on a business trip to Chicago in 2011.  We stayed in Schaumburg, and took the train along with Kit and Ruthie into Chicago, and went to American Girl Place.  Such amazing memories from that trip.  I can still see my girls looking out the window of the train while holding their dolls in their arms, and their eyes filled with wonder at the AG store.  The images etched in my mind from that trip seem like they could have been right  out of a storybook.  Maybe I'll get out the pictures from the trip, and put them in a post about memories from our trip to AGP.

Anyway, sorry for that little trip down memory lane.  Back on topic, Josefina's face is so lovely!  She has beautiful brown eyes and feathered eyebrows.  Here's a closeup of her face.

Josefina is our first AG doll with brown eyes.  She is just stunning!  I like her so much more than I even thought I would.  Her features are so strikingly different from the others!  She is wearing gold hoop earrings, which look so adorable on her.  She is our first AG doll with earrings too!  :)

Her long dark brown, almost black hair is beautiful.  Here you can see how long her hair is.

 I like to keep her hair braided like this.  It looks so pretty, and will keep her long hair nice.

I am so thrilled to have Josefina as part of our AG family, and I would highly recommend her as a lovely addition to every AG collection!

Meet our American Girls

 I would like to introduce you to our American Girl family and share a little history on how each one came to be a part of our family.  

The first American Girls in our family were Samantha and Molly.

Samantha & Molly

Their previous owner, who was a college student, had listed them on Craigslist.  She'd had them since she was a little girl, and they are both Pleasant Company dolls.  These girls have been with us for a few years now.

Our next addition was Nellie.

Nellie

Nellie was also a Craigslist find.  She was listed by a mom who's daughters had outgrown their dolls.  She was selling each item separately, so I didn't get everything she had, just Nellie and some AG clothes.  Nellie is also a Pleasant Company doll.  Unfortunately, her previous owner must not have liked Nellie's bangs and cut them completely off.  Poor Nellie! The rest of her hair was uncut though, and you can't really tell that she ever had bangs.  I could rewig her, but she still looks pretty cute as she is.  Here's how she looks without her bangs.

Here is Nellie at home now with her best friend Samantha.

Our next additions to our American Girl family were Kit and Ruthie.

Ruthie & Kit

Kit and Ruthie were purchased new from American Girl a couple years ago as Christmas gifts.  Our middle daughter got Kit and our youngest got Ruthie. These are the only 2 dolls in our collection that we purchased brand new so far, and that are not the older Pleasant Company dolls. 

More recently, we had another new addition to our American Girl family.  I'm always on the lookout for American Girls at flea markets, garage sales, and Craigslist, but those bargains just don't happen everyday.  You never know when one will turn up though, so you have to constantly keep looking.  Just a few weeks ago, I saw an ad on Craigslist for several American Girl dolls.  The ad listed the price at $400, and I almost didn't call because that is out of my price range.  Since one of the dolls listed was Josefina, I decided to call anyway and ask about buying just her.  I talked to a dad who was helping his teenage daughter to sell the dolls.  He said the price was negotiable and pretty much agreed over the phone to sell Josefina for $50.  When I got to their house, there was Josefina, Samantha, a boy and girl Bitty Twins, and an American Girl Hopscotch Hill Logan doll. He could tell that I was interested in more than just Josefina when I saw them.  They even still had the original boxes for all the dolls.  He offered to sell me all 5 dolls plus the extra accessories they had for $120.  That was quite a drop from $400.  I went there intending to buy just Josefina for $50 though, so I quickly checked to see how much cash I had.  I only had $109, but he agreed to sell everything for that amount.  So here they are...

Josefina, Bitty Twins, Samantha & Logan

I'll do a more in depth review with pictures of each one later.  These are all older Pleasant Company dolls.  All the dolls were completely dressed except for Samantha, who had a purple coat but no clothes.  I wasn't planning to get Samantha since I already have her, but since he was offering such a great deal for the whole lot... now I have two Samantha's. Currently one is in the American Girl dollhouse in my girl's room, and the other is in my room.  I may rename mine, but I haven't come up with a name yet.  

The Snow White outfit she is wearing was actually another Craigslist find.  Someone listed the dress on Craigslist for $7, so I met the seller in the Wal-Mart parking lot and bought it.  Doesn't Samantha look like a princess in it?

Here is a side by side comparison shot of our two Samantha dolls.

I hope you enjoyed reading about our American Girl family and how they came to live with us.  

More adventures to come...