American Girl Doll Tea Party

Hadley is THE party planner. She has been planning and talking about her "American Girl" Birthday party for at least 3 months. She knew she wanted an AG doll party but wasn't sure about any of the other details. I threw out a few ideas, like modge podging something with stuff cut out of AG catalogs, but was quickly shut down. "I'm not sure that would really be fun, mom. I was thinking we could do something like a word search while we watched an American Girl movie." Did she really say she'd rather do a word search? We finally decided she would have a tea party, make some sort of craft and watch an AG movie. I made the invitations but she was hesitant about passing them out without having all of the fine details figured out. "What are we going to eat at the tea party? What time will we start the craft? What craft are we going to do?How can we pass out the invitations?" I promised her that she was going to have an amazing party and that we still had a week to figure out all of the details. She happily passed out her invitations. We went to Michael's Craft store the next day and she found the perfect craft idea--a wooden frame to paint and modge podge with AG scrapbook paper.

The invitation

She invited 15 girls (and their dolls) to her party. I wanted to keep the party small but she really love all of these girls and wanted each of them to be at the party. She is very lucky to have such great friends and cousins.

I think I had more fun planning this party than Hadley did. Gavin kept joking that I was more excited for my party than Hadley. My favorite part was finding all of the china and tea cups. I used both my grandmother's and mom's china for the place settings. It brought back so many memories to see my grandmother's china again. All of those Sunday dinners at her house, eating off of the exact same plates. It was neat to be able to use them for Hadley's special party. And I also found this amazing cake stand, hiding in my mom's cupboard. It was a wedding gift 45 years ago. I don't remember ever seeing her use it. It is glass with tarnished silver. Beautiful. It completed the table.

The cake -- I used fondant for the first time. So easy and cute!

As the girls arrived to the party, I took a picture of each girl holding their doll and then they sat their doll down at the doll table. I realized as I was taking this picture that these dolls enjoying their tea party is a little weird. Cute but weird.

The dolls table

The big girls table

THE MENU:

Ham and Cheese or PB & J sandwiches

Chocolate dipped strawberries

Grapes

Carrots and dip

Mini colored marshmallows on a toothpick

Cupcake

Hot cider with sugar cubes

Passing around the bowl of sugar cubes

The Birthday Girl

9 candles!!!

Gifts. And more gifts.

American I-"Doll" -- karaoking to a few songs.

Arts and Crafts. Each girl painted a wooden frame and modge podged AG scrapbook stuff on them. They turned out really cute and were each so different. I put the picture of the girl with her doll that was taken when she first arrived to the party. I wish I would've gotten a picture of all the completed frames but ran out of time. I barely got all of the pictures done by the time the parents were here to take them home.

Hadley's frame creation

They ended the night with popcorn and the AG movie, Samantha.

Parting Gifts-- teacup and saucer full of yummy treats and their picture frame.

A big thank you to Jill and Oakley for all of their help. I kept them running all night and wouldn't have been able to enjoy the party without all of their help! Thanks, girls!!!