Crowds, Dresses, and Dessert

Sunday was the big shopping day downtown in the Fashion District. I was all set with my maps, lists and recommendations. We zipped down the 101 to the 110 with no traffic and quickly found a parking lot.

Our first stop was Trendy Too, I had been told they had the biggest selection. They did - a lot of dresses. Sadly, the girls would not let me take pictures - I got a lot of eye rolling and "mommmmmm".

Let me preface the rest of this post with the fact that my daughter is some what claustrophobic. She does not do well in areas with a lot of people (and dresses).

She gets overwhelmed very easily (her room is proof of this....). We started looking at all the dresses and trying to decide on a style, color, etc. We didn't have too much luck here so we tried our luck at another store. Our next stop was Cinderella.

This store was PACKED full of girls waiting to try on dresses. Both girls' faces lit up though when we walked in this store. All the hard work had been done - all you had to do was pick out one of the dresses on the wall and try it on. Ahhhh.... the only trick was they could try on only 3 dresses. At first I didn't understand the reasoning but after spending time in the cramped store, I liked that policy. Get 'em in and get 'em out!

Chels found her dress here, very pretty, very elegant and it was at a good price. Ash had found one but I could tell that it wasn't what she really wanted so I talked her into looking at a couple more stores.

Our next stop was Nobell. This store was bigger and not even as crowded as the first two. A much better environment for my little claustrophobic baby. She looked through the racks until she found the perfect dress she had been looking for. Frosty blue with just a few rhinestones on the straps. Very pretty, very elegant, very Ash. And it was on sale... very me.

We headed down Santee Alley to look for jewelry and shoes. Here is where I learned that Chels' mom, my dear friend Bet is also claustrophobic. We always joke that Ash could be her daughter and Chels could be mine. Chels and I could have shopped down there all day! I was loving it.

It took Ash and Bet just a few stores and they were done.

That was fine, we had accomplished what we had come down for.

Being that it was also the first of the playoff games for the Lakers we decided to leave the area before the traffic go too bad.

We had a lovely lunch at Cheescake Factory and ended it off with a scrumptous piece of Key Lime Pie to share.

YUM!

**Update - I already have the green light to take pictures the night of the prom. The kids are meeting at a friend's house for all the parents to take pictures before jumping in the limo and going to dinner.** Mark my word - there will be pictures. ; )