American Girl-apalooza

Our sweet Aubree turned 7 last week.  For the first time, she decided she wanted a "friend" birthday party.  More specifically, she wanted an American Girl birthday party.  Thanks to Pinterest and some ideas from my sister, Kira, we planned a really fun party (and, to state the obvious - parties for seven-year-old girls are MUCH easier to plan and execute than parties for 4 year-olds).

We decided on a red and pink star decoration theme, based on the American Girl "Follow Your Inner Star" logo.

and now you also know what our dining room looks like...

Seven girls and their dolls came to Aubree's party.  Most are from her primary class in our new ward (there are six girls in her class and they all get along wonderfully!).  I neglected to get a posed picture with all the girls, but here are the first three to arrive:

It was a very crafty party.  First they made jeweled hair clips for themselves and their dolls, then they made 3-D punch-out flowers (an official American Girl craft).  Aubree says, "it was so crazy fun.  I could tell everybody else liked it too."

After crafts, it was lunch time, and these girls certainly brought their appetites!

Jello Jigglers - a BIG hit

While the girls ate, the dolls chatted on the couch.

After lunch we played American Girl Bingo (with Starbursts as markers).  The winners got to choose an AG sticker page as a prize.  

Then it was time for an edible craft - decorating star sugar cookies.  After seeing the finished products, it was sometimes hard to believe there were actually cookies underneath all the frosting and sprinkles.

If they weren't sugared out enough (though I did tell them they could only eat one cookie and take the rest home...), ice-cream cake came next.  The girls most liked the chocolate star molds.  "How did you do that," they asked in amazement.  They seemed a little suspicious when I started mentioning words like "mold."

Even the dolls had their own "cupcakes."

Finally it was time to open presents.  I tried to convince Aubree she didn't need any presents, but she was thoroughly unconvinced.  

In the end it went as well as I could have hoped, and even Graham cooperated by sleeping through almost all of it (he woke up only long enough to get bashed in the head by an over-excited, hopping Aubree, then [once he calmed down] went right back to sleep).  I asked Aubree afterwards if it was what she imagined.  "No," she answered, "it was even better!"