Kate's Doll Party - Thriving Parents

This American Girl birthday party was made perfect with tiny paper products and tiny food!

Back in March the sweet baby girl that made me a mama turned 6. She was excited for this birthday party that she started planning it in December! (Which means she’s getting ready to start planning her 7th!)

Here are the details she asked for:

A doll party, so all of her friends could bring over their cute silicone baby dolls
Invite all the girls from her class
All baby doll cribs in the family room for the girls to use (in case their babies needed a nap)
Small food so the girls could pretend the dolls were eating

I LOVE theme parties! When the girls were little we always just decorated with a color theme. Then we did Kate’s ladybug party for her 3rd birthday (I’ll blog that one day), her rainbow birthday party for her 4th birthday, and the cake decorating party for her 5th birthday.

The Invitation

I knew early on what I wanted to do for her invitation. I had her grab her favorite baby doll (at the time) and took a photo of her against the blue wall in our dining room. I left plenty of space to the right side of the photo so that we could place all the party information there. I uploaded the picture to PicMonkey, where I edited it and added all the party information. I decided to do the information in rainbow colors just so it would be brighter. Then I saved the photo and had them printed at Walgreens. Each invitation was a standard sized photo and was glossy. Walgreens also gave me free envelopes to mail the invitations.

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The Paper Products

I knew I’d be taking Kate to the American Girl store to buy her first American Girl doll before her party so I thought these plates were perfect. The regular sized plates were purchased separately from the napkins, and cups. However, the doll sized ones came in a set. The set said it included plates, cups, and napkins but there were no napkins in the pack. Instead, there were placemats. I loved those even more because it allowed me to set a specific place for each doll to sit be held on someone’s lap.

Aren’t these tiny cups adorable?

It’s hard to see the set up of the party from these photos but we pushed our kitchen table against the sliding glass doors. All of the food was placed there and the girls were able to serve themselves. Then we took these little Ikea table & chair sets that the girls have and set them up in our kitchen. Each table sat 4 children so we had plenty of room for them.

The Food

I always let the girls pick what food we serve for their parties. I try to make sure I have all their favorites while being mindful of allergies of the guests.

These little pizza muffins are always a big hit. The kids devour them! I serve them with some pizza sauce for dipping.

One of Kate’s favorite foods is chicken salad. She likes helping me cook the chicken and shred it in the mixer. We made a load of flower shaped bread and cut the slices thin to make these adorable sandwiches. The girls all loved them and I don’t think we had more than 1 left over.

I always seem to make these marshmallow centerpieces. They are easy to make and really make a table pop. The kids are allowed to eat them with parental permission. They are definitely a hit of sugar. To make them I stick a popsicle stick in a large marshmallow and dip the opposite end in some melted white chocolate before dipping it into some sugar crystal sprinkles. I anchor them in a mason jar filled with m&ms but last year I used jelly beans. Any kind of candy would work. Kate’s birthday is before Easter so it’s really easy to find spring colored candy.

The Cake

I love making a cake. I stink, however, at decorating it. I am so bad at it, in fact, that I covered this entire cake with sprinkles (which Kate loved). I used an 8″ cake for the bottom and a 6″ cake for the top layer. I used the extra batter to make tiny cupcakes for the dolls to “eat” and some of the girls preferred the cupcakes too.

This may be the best cupcake I decorated. I needed to document the moment.

Here’s our birthday girl blowing out her candles!

The Favors

I LOVE favors – like really love making favors. I do not love getting little tiny things as favors. And by little tiny things, I mean things I will inadvertently step on in the middle of the night when I am barefoot. Truthfully, I think favors are unnecessary. However, my mind is always on a craft overdrive so I always think of a thousand ideas for favors and then have to narrow it down.

Each guest and her doll got a pinwheel bow. I know this is the worst photo ever but it’s the only one I had on my camera. The girls’ pinwheels were 3″ squares and the dolls’ pinwheels were 2″ wide. They were super easy to do and I just hot glued them to a barrette covered in some pink grosgrain ribbon.

Our other favor (yes, I had favor overload) was a doll sleeping bag. I found a great tutorial on Pinterest and immediately put it on my Birthday Party board. The sleeping bag is lined with a coordinating fabric.