Very Merry American Girl UnBirthday Party

This past Saturday we celebrated Gracie’s 8th Birthday. We called it a Very Merry UnBirthday party because her real birthday is in August. You would think having a summer birthday would be cool, but for her it is not. Every year the same thing happens… she invites people and they cannot come because they are squeezing in one more quick summer trip before school starts. SO… we decided to squeeze in a birthday party before school ended this year. But we needed to do it on a budget because Gracie wants to go to the American Girl Cafe in NY City for her real birthday. I gave her a $100 budget and together we got very creative. She chose to keep the party small so that her money would go further. Since she is going to the American Girl Cafe we thought it would be fun to use American Girl as the theme. We came up with the idea of Cupcakes to go with it. I blogged about it and posted a bunch a pictures to go along with it. I invite you to check it out at http://www.blog.mamasturnnow.com/2011/06/13/gracies-very-merry-american-girl-unbirthday-party/

• Best Dressed

  My daughter's American Girl Doll. We purchase an adorable cupcake outfit off of Ebay that even included cupcake clogs! It was so cute and a real steal at only $15 including shipping!

• Desserts

  The girls took home the cupcakes they made but we ate the ones I made at the party. I made them to look like the ones I used on the labels. Yellow cupcakes with vanilla frosting with chocolate shavings on top.

• Activities / Games

  The Girls LOved seating their dolls at their own table, especially on the bean bag chairs I made for all them. They also made matching girl/doll cupcake necklaces, colored a 3D cupcake, and of course decorated cupcakes which they took home in their own tins. They watched an American Girl Movie too with a huge tub of homemade popcorn.

• Budget

  The entire party including the outfit for the doll and even the cost of the pizza cost $100!!!!

• Best Moment

  At the end of the party one of the little girls said to me, Can I come back tomorrow and do this again! I took that as a sign that it was a fun party!

• What People Ate

  Pizza and of course CUPCAKES!!!

• What People Drank

  The girls drank KoolAid out of there own water bottles that I made custom lids for with their names to so every one knew whose was whose.

• Most Touching Moment

  My daughter came up to me and pulled me aside and wrapped her arm around me nd whispered into my ear, "Mom this is the best party ever... thank you!"

• Funniest Moment

  Watching them eat more of the icing then they decorated their cupcakes with.