The Sleepover

Mikaella and Dana have a Sleepover

“I am so excited for our sleepover,” Dana exclaims to Mikaella.

“Me too.  What should we do first?”

“I have no clue…”

Mikaella sighs and thinks, “what about playing Simon?”

“Let’s ask the Magic 8 Ball.” Dana says as she lifts the ball.  She shakes it athen turns it over.  The little triangle surfaces and says “definetly yes” 

“Looks like the Magic 8 Ball wants us to play Simon,” declares Mikaella.

The girls sit down on Mikaella’s bed.  They put Simon between them and hit the start button.  

Beep the red botton lights up.  Dana pushes it.  Beep, boop the red botton flashes than the yellow one.  

Mikaella, pushes the button in sequenece.  Beep, boop, beep,  red, yellow, blue.  Dana quickly pushes the buttons.  

Now Simon starts getting faster, the lights flashing quickly and the accompaning melodic sound.  

Mikaella and Dana take turns hitting the sequence of buttons, repeating the sequence, until finally…merrrp.  Mikaella hits the wrong button in the sequence.

“Awww…” Mikaella says dissappointingly.

Dana giggles, “It’s alright.  We did pretty awesome!”

“True,” Mikaella agrees.  “Do you want to play again?”

“Ahhh…” Dana muses “Let’s play Barrel of Monkeys!”

Mikaella nods and gets the Barrel of Monkeys game.  

The girls take turns seeing who can pick up the most monkeys.  Dana  watches in awe as Mikaella picks up ever monkey to complete her strand!

“Wow…that is so cool!” Dana says, just as the string of monkey’s falls apart.  

Dana and Mikaella laugh as the pick up the monkeys and put them back in their barrel.

“What should we do next?” asks Dana.

“Let’s consult with the Magic 8 ball.” suggests Mikaella.  

“Oh Magic 8 Ball, should we have a pillow fight?”  She flips the Magic 8 Ball. “No?”

Dana laughs, “Can’t go against the Magic 8 Ball.  Better ask it something else.”

Mikaella shakes the Magic 8 Ball again while asking, “Oh Magic 8 Ball, should we dance?” The triangle appears with the words “Absolutely, positive.”  

Mikaella shows Dana.  She grabs the boombox, plugs in her iPhone, selects shuffle, and music starts playing.  

Mikaella begins dancing to the music. 

The two girls dance and sing to their favorite songs.  

Dana turns to Mikaella, “Watch this!” She spins as fast as she can, but looses her balance and falls back on the bed.

“You’re hilarious Dana,” Mikaella laughs as she picks up on of the pillows.  

She throws it at Dana.   Pffff…it hits Dana in the face. 

“Oh that’s how it’s going to be,” Dana says jokingly as she gets up from the bed.  Pillow in hand, she swings at Mikaella, bonking her on the head.  

Mikaella giggles and grabs a pillow, jumping up on the bed.  

They swat at each other, laughing as they do.  

Mikaella jumps off the bed and hits Dana.  Dana’s eyes get big and a determined look crosses her face.  

The girls smack each other with their pillows until finally Mikaella falls on her back on the bed. 

Dana laughs and sits at the end of the bed.  “Truce?” she asks, smiling.

“Truce.”  Mikaella conceeds.  

She laughs.  “Awww…we better go to bed.”

Dana agrees.  Mikaella bends down and pulls out the bottom bed for Dana to sleep on.  

Mikaella and Dana tuck them selves into the covers.  “Goodnight Mikaella.” Dana yawns.

“Goodnight Dana.”  

Mikaella says as she closes her eyes, drfiting off to sleep, she thinks “It’s awesome having great friends like Dana.”

Australian Dana's Outfit Review

Not a New Doll, But a Great Outfit

Like most of the Journey Girls for the Australia line, Dana is not a new doll, but her outfit is brand-new. Dana comes in a schoolgirl inspired outfit with a plaid skirt, a T-shirt, a pink jacket socks and shoes. We're going to look at if the outfit is worth the cost of the doll.

The first thing that you'll notice is Dana's jacket.  It's a pink puffy style jacket with a gray jersey knit collar,  waistline and cuffs.  It's not as puffy as some of the Our Generation jackets, it's really just made to look like a puffy jacket with diamond shaped stitching.  

Fake pockets on each side, actually have some space to put something in but not much. If the Journey Girls arms bent they could put their hands in the pockets but with solid arms that don't bend, the pockets are just for decoration. Another thing that's just for decoration on the jacket is the zipper. Like so many other Journey Girls outfits this jacket has the teeth of the zipper, but not the actual zipper.  

So there's no way to close the jacket, it always stays open. In my opinion, I think they should've just skipped the teeth of the zipper and put the jersey material up that middle part rather than teasing us with a zipper. Overall a really nice little jacket, even if it doesn't zip up.

The gray cotton T-shirt, similar to many other Journey Girls T-shirts, except for a few little details, like the dark gray short sleeves.  

Velcro up the entire back which means that you don't have to put this shirt on over Dana's legs. As you know from other reviews this makes me very happy. I think this is a good design. 

On the chest on the left side there is a letter of black leather pockets that does actually have space in it so you could put a little pen in there or a handkerchief or something like that it's a cute design.  It gives a little bit more fashion to the T-shirt then just being a normal great t-shirt.

The skirt that comes with this outfit is a plaid skirt it's mainly ahead a dark gray color similar to the gray in the T-shirt. It also has darker pink stripes or muted pink stripes and black stripes that accent the skirt.  

There's a hemline around the waist and the skirt has a little bit of a flare out towards the bottom so it's not completely straight but it doesn't have pleats that make it spread out. There's a little bit of Velcro in the back, about an inch long, just enough to make it easy to get the skirt on and off. The skirt does have a liner in it, the white fabric that we see in many of the Journey Girls outfits, presumably to help with the color transfer that happens with some of the darker colors.

Something that was surprising in this set was the little socks that come with the outfit. They are a gray cotton knit, very similar to what the T-shirt is made out of but a little bit softer.   

There's really nothing to the socks.   They are tube socks, they have a little hem at the top to make sure that they don't fray, there's a little bit of a heel, but not much.  Overall, very simple but such a great piece to the outfit.  

I love that my doll now has socks that go along with the outfit and she doesn't have to wear shoes without socks. 

Speaking of shoes we have some brand-new shoes with this outfit. The shoes are a shiny silver leather, not sparkly (yeah no glitter everywhere), just shiny. The sole of the shoe is made out of the plastic that we've seen on some of the other new shoes.  I love these new soles.   They're great, they give the shoes a lot of heft. 

However, the one issue that I have is that there is no tread on the bottom and because it's literally a hard plastic it is very slippery.  So standing the doll on carpet or even sometimes tile, there are traction issues. 

For play, probably not a huge deal, unless your child really likes to stand the doll.  Then it's going to be a challenge. The shoe itself is kind of a loafer style shoe.  It has a little bit of a low cut, a tongue upfront and an awesome little loop on the heel of the shoe to help pull the shoe up! 

I wish all of the shoes had this on them.  It makes it so much easier to get them on the dolls foot. So unlike many other shoes that we've seen with Journey Girls these shoes are great and really add something to the outfit.

Rating

All ratings are out of 10

Value 8 – Even with the extra price of the doll, this is a great outfit.  There are many great pieces to it, and tiny surprises (like the socks) too.  Again, it would be great to get this outfit by itself, but it is still worth it with the Dana doll.

Fitment 9 – Everything fits well.  The skirt just fits around Dana's waist.  Really, that is it.  Everything else fits perfectly.

Versatility 9 – There are so many possibilities with this outfit.  The top and skirt can go with many different outfits.  The jacket is a great accessory to other outfits.  Although with no zipper it can't really be used as an outside winter jacket, it's still very versatile.  The shoes have so many options.  All of the pieces of the outfit can be used with other outfits, which is a great thing.

Cuteness 9 – This is an amazing outfit.  Cute and useful.  The skirt is my favorite "cute" part.  The colors are great and the design is classic.  I love that the jacket works so well with the skirt. 

Overall 9 – A solid nine.  With lots of pieces to the outfit and great versatility of the pieces, the value of this outfit is awesome (even with the extra cost of the doll).  The new design of the shoes is great.  The little socks are nice.  It's just an all around good outfit.  Well worth the cost.  Pick it up while you still can.

AG Note

Like many other Journey Girls outfits, this one has some issues with fit on the AG dolls.  Gabriella can barely fit into the skirt, and it can't be Velcroed all the way.  

If you pull hard enough the top can be done, but just the very tip top.  The shirt may fit, but I couldn't get it past Gabby's right hand.  There have been other Journey Girls outfits that have this same problem.  

Some of you may not have the same issue as consistency can also be an issue with outfits.  The jacket fits, but is tight.  Gabby can't really raise her arms.  

The sleeve is so tight on her wrist that the entire sleeve turns as you raise her arm.  

The socks fit, but I fear that if the socks are on an AG doll too long the will stretch and won't stay on the Journey Girls.  

I wish the shoes fit because they are so cute, but like all the other Journey Girls shoes they unfortunately do not.  For the money, this one is not worth it if you are going to mostly use it for your AG doll.  It is still amazing for the Journey Girls though!