15046

American Girl -6yr- Decorate Doll Hats

February 2007

Kim in Overland Park, KS

Honorable Mention

My daughter wanted an American Girl party for her 6th birthday.  We decided to go with the dog Coconut, the American Girl's best friend, theme because I was able to purchase all the party kits on clearance from the American Girl website.  The party kits contained Cocnut invitations, thank you notes, paper plates, plastic silver ware, cups, straws, napkins with a flower hair elastic for each girls' doll to use as a napkin ring and a big butterfly sticker. 

The invitation asked each girl to bring their doll to the party.  My daughter's favorite color is pink so that was the main color used for the decorations and table cloths.  I lined up three card tables covered in table cloths for the girls to sit. I made center pieces for the tables by cutting out the pictures of Coconut from the boxes the party supplies came in.  I placed the cutouts in small silver bags stuffed with pink tissue and tied balloon clusters to the bags. 

I had party bags filled with candy at each place setting with each girls name on them.  I made doll sized tables by unscrewing the legs off of two circular child size tables and placing them on upside down terra cotta pots.  I covered each with a pink table cloth and used the same center pieces. I also placed a small party hat decoration at each place settting for the dolls.  The dolls sat on the floor around the tables. 

When the girls arrived their dolls sat at the doll tables and the girls at the big tables.  The craft was to paint a ceramic doll sized tea cup, saucer and plate.  These were purchased in sets of four on clearance at Walmart.  I bought small plastic paint palletes for each girl to distribute the paint, and had a dixie cup of water, paint brush and paper towel at each place setting.  The girls set their tea cups on the little tables in front of their dolls to dry. 

Next, we decorated straw hats for the dolls.  I purchased the hats at Michaels as well as a pink and white flower garland.  I cut all the flowers off the garland in advance and separated them equally into individual baggies for each girl.  They attached the flowers to the hats with glue dots.  I purchased The Coconut Quiz Book at Borders and made color copies of several pages for some games. 

The first game was to find which two flowers on the page were the same.  The next involved looking at a picture for one minute, then turning it over.  I read a short story and the girls had to fill in the blanks by remembering what was in the picture.  I purchased some Coconut party favors for eight on ebay, but their were 12 girls at the party. So I put all the favors in a box and each girl got to pick their prize after we completed a game.  The favors included Coconut stamp sets, sticker sheets, magnet frames, notepads, necklaces and bracelets.  The girls put their prizes into their party bags. 

The next activity was to choose either having their dolls hair styled or making a necklace for their doll.  I decided to have the necklaces as an option for those who did not have a doll whose hair could be styled.   My daughter already had the American Girl Hairstyle book and Jewerly Making book to use  for reference.  I predetermined which necklace design we would follow and the girls got to choose the color of beads.  I purchased the supplies at Michaels.  I let the girls choose the hairstyle they wanted from the book and my sister asemlbed the necklaces. 

Next, we played stick the butterfly on Coconut's nose.  My husband had a poster made by enlarging a picture of Coconut.  The party kits included the stickers.  I wrote each girls name on the sticker so we would know whose was whose.  We blind folded each girl and played like pin the tail on the donkey.  Everyone got a prize.  Then we had cake and opened gifts. I had the cake made at Hen House our local grocery store.  It was shaped like a dog and frosted white and had a water bowl with blue water. 

The last game was set up in the back yard.  I made a yarn maze by using 12 different colors of yarn tied from the back door knob and weaving in and out of the trees in the back yard.  I gave each girl a piece of yarn and said that Coconut's leashes got all tangled up because she was hunting for a surprise.  Then they were off to follow their color of yarn.  This game was a little too difficult for them, but they had fun with it anyway.  All of the yarn ended at the same large tree which was concealing their party favors.  I purchased the party favors on sale at Hallmark which was a round Coconut case filled with mini colored pencils, pencil sharpener, tape and note paper. 

The girls had a great time and got to leave with a lot of fun stuff for themselves and their dolls!

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