An American Girl Birthday Party!

For my daughters 9th birthday, I planned an American Girl themed slumber party.  This meant that I would need to plan extra things to do at the party, as the girls would be there over night!

With a summer birthday, I set up the party on the porch.  I found some purple, aqua and pink place settings that had an owl theme. Because it was a sleep over, I limited the number of girls she could invite to 4, plus Gracie and her sister.  I had two clip on chairs from Target so the dolls could join us at the table. I figured out that when I pushed stools up to the table, I could put our beach chairs that I made following Jen's tutorial here, and all the dolls could sit at the table with us!

I like to hang balloons from the ceiling to keep the table clear for our crafts and settings!

The girls arrived at 2:00, so some light snacks were out.  I set up the crafts, snacks and gifts on a side table.

These were the cutest napkins!  When I unfolded them, there were larger owls inside!  The colors coordinated well with the mini-doll sized paper plates I found.

For late night fun, I ordered the American Girl Coconut's Quiz book.  This was filled with quiz questions to do with friends, and I picked them up this summer when they were clearanced down to just $2 each!

The red envelope was an American Girl Fashion show set of paper dolls.  I picked these up for just $2.50 at the Madison Children's Museum Benefit Sale, and was a perfect complement to the toilet paper fashion show I had planned!

I found these little doll sized purses at Michael's for $1 each, and the girls embellished them with foam stickers.

As the dolls arrived they sat down to check out the party settings!

The lip gloss party favors that came in a container that looked like an ice cream Sunday were perfectly doll sized.  They came in a set of 4 for just $3.50 at Walmart in the party supply isle!

I found these American Girl Brand table settings which came with paper plates, paper cups and matching place-mats at Michael's.  They came as a set of 4 settings for $6.50, but there was a 40% off coupon, ao I actually paid less.  I was so glad to find these! I did not send those home with our guests because it is nice to have a set of 8 matching plates/cups and I plan to use them for our doll parties in the future.  I wish they had come with miniature plastic forks!  If anyone knows where I can find  doll size plastic forks at a reasonable price, please share!

I wish I would have taken pictures of the birthday horns as I made them, because it was so easy, and they came out SO CUTE!  I will do my best to describe what I did. I began with a colored drinking straw that I cut to the right length.  Then I took some colored paper, that I rolled to be the part that blows out.  I used a glue dot to adhere it to the end of the straw.  I had some silver streamer that I cut to add to the end, around the curl.  I used shiny aluminum tape that I found at the hardware store (I use this all the time- I like it much better than duct tape, because it actually is silver and shiny!)  I cut a strip and wrapped it around the straw.  I made each doll one to match the human sized ones I bought for the girls.

The drinking straw slid between the dolls fingers, so they could hold the party horn! And, when the girls tried them, the paper curl actually went out!

As the girls showed up, the first activity was to make doll sized birthday cakes!  I prepared the base, using a yellow foam kneeling pad that I cut into circles and hot glued two on top of each other for the base of the cake!  The girls decorated them with puffy paints!  So easy!  I chose to have each girl begin with a layer of chocolate frosting (like Molly's cake!)  So, when the girls arrived this was our first activity, as that brown paint needed to dry before they could add extra decorations!

You can see one that is not painted yet.  Each girl had a cake and a single slice to decorate.

While the paint dried, the girls went for a swim!

 Then we went back to the house for pizza and more crafts!

 After eating dinner, cake and presents, the girls used puffy paint to complete our cakes.  Then it was time for the dolls to visit the flower stand!  Each doll took a turn 'shopping' for flowers.  They each got to pick out flowers from our stand, and create their own flower arrangement.

                                         Lucy was working at the stand while the dolls shopped!

Here, you can see the girls helped their dolls pick out flowers.

 This is our summer resort that I made using cardboard, following this Saige tutorial.  This has added a tremendous amount of play fun!  It has been used as a hotel/resort, grandma's house, a fruit stand and now a flower stand!  Ivy has set up a hibachi grill/ sushi stand as well.  More to come on this set up in the future!

The morning of the party, I created our stage.  I used black foam core, added a curtain made from part of a table cloth.  Stuck it all together with hot glue and added 3 clip on flashlights for the spot lights!  This was the most fun part of the party for the girls!  You can see that our flower arrangements became part of the stage decor.

 To prepare for the fashion shoe, each girl was given a roll of sturdy toilet paper, and clear tape.

 As they worked, the toilet paper piled up!  But it was FUN!

 When the doll dressed were all designed, it was time to set up for the show!  We had an audience sections.

 And the dolls rocked the runway with music playing!

 Strike a pose!

 Everyone came back on stage for a final applause!

 Then the girls decided that they needed to dress up as well!

After the toilet paper fun, it was getting dark and time to set up an outdoor theater.  I have a projector that we hooked up so play the American Girl Saige Paints the Sky movie onto the side of the house.  With popcorn and a movie playing, it was a nice way to wind down from the excitement of the party!