Our Generation "Jenny and Her Gourmet Kitchen" Set

I am absolutely crazy about kitchen sets, as you know if you've read my Muppet kitchen review, my Li'l Woodzeez bakery review or my Monster High Coffin Bean comparison review.  Oh--and also my Kurhn kitchen set review and my Sylvanian Family bakery review.  Hm.  I didn't realize I had quite so many food-related play sets.  Anyway, I am also on a bit of a 18" play doll kick thanks to my recent introduction to American Girls.  So, my current obsessions certainly make this play set very timely, but I think it is an unequivocally neat kitchen set that might also be the best doll purchase bargain of the year.  If I had younger kids, this set would already be stashed away and ready for a big, wonderful surprise on Christmas morning.  It packs a huge amount of fun into a surprisingly small (yet still impressive) box.  In fact, there are so many pieces with this set, my usual review approach got a little ridiculous.  There are a ton of pictures in this post.  I have tried to make some of them small to save space, but as always, you can click on pictures to make them larger if you want to see more detail.  If you don't want to see pictures that ruin the surprise of what's in the box, just read the first few paragraphs after the jump.  There's a weird marketing thing going on and I don't want anyone to mistakenly buy the wrong set.

There's a lot to see here, so without any more delay, let's look at Our Generation Jenny and her Gourmet Kitchen Set.  Fasten your seat belts.

Our Generation Jenny and her Gourmet Kitchen.

My American Girl #29

I bought my very first American Girl doll at the beginning of the month when I visited the amazing American Girl store in Natick, Massachusetts--near Boston.  I went to the store with every intention of purchasing the historical girl, Rebecca, but the overwhelming array of options scrambled my brain and then led me to My American Girl #29.

The first order of business was that this doll needed a suitable name--something other than Number 29.  I love naming things, but can get hung up on the process because I need to pick a name that is just right.  I have been this way ever since I was a kid.  As a brief aside, if you like names as much as I do, check out the unbeatable Baby Name Wizard site, created by an incredibly neat friend of mine.  Anyway--I didn't need the Baby Name Wizard for this doll because I had Andrea.  Thank you, Andrea (and everyone else who had great name suggestions!) for helping me name Miss Keira:

My American Girl #29
Keira Sofia

Our Generation "Charlotte" Doll by Battat

I have become much more interested in 18" play dolls recently.  In the comments section of a recent post, Juliet asked me if I own an American Girl doll, and I felt more than a little silly telling her that I do not.  Many of you know that I've thought about this purchase a lot, and I have every intention of reviewing one of these dolls (maybe Rebecca, Saige or Emily?  Will you help me decide in the poll on the right?), but I just can't seem to make it happen.  I think part of the reason is that there are so many amazing American Girl resources out there--Doll Diaries and Never Grow Up being among my favorites.  Those sites make me feel like I already have an American Girl doll, and so I tend to be more interested in investigating other options.

I often refer to the less expensive American Girl imitators when I am discussing the prices of various 18" dolls.  I have mentioned the Springfield Collection, the Journey Girls (Toys R Us) and Our Generation (Target).  I've never actually reviewed one of these brands, though.  The other day while I was browsing at Target, I noticed that the Our Generation girls were on sale for $18.99 (down from $22.99).  That's a pretty good deal.  Not only that, but there was a cute little redhead with bright blue eyes that I had never seen before sitting on the shelf all alone--clearly hoping that I would bring her home.  Meet Charlotte:

Our Generation doll, "Charlotte."
$18.99 on sale at Target.