American Girl -8yr- Cinderella's Shoe Hunt

My daughter decided to have an American Girl Party.  I have to admit, she did most the work.  I gave her guidance, but she picked almost everything. 

INVITATIONS:    We emailed the invitations. We uploaded a picture of Kit Kittredge, added accents of things we would be doing handbag, flowers, etc.   The invitation said, You're invited to an American Girl Party.  It listed the date, time 4-7pm, and that it would be at our house.  It said come enjoy crafts, games, a tea dinner, and an American Girl movie.  Please bring your American Girl doll or if you don't have one a doll or stuffed animal of your choice. 

DECORATIONS:  We had set up a dainty craft table where each girl's place was set with their name, items needed for their crafts, and the first craft was set up.  The dining room where we were having dinner had 2 tables.  One was a small play table for the dolls with plates, cups, and food.  The second table was for the girls and was set with my china plates, tea cups, my good silverware, table cloth, cloth napkins, wine glasses (for grape lemonade), place cards, glass creamer & sugar with sugar cubes, my 3 tiered serving platter, and mints, we had set up 2 game areas, and the movie area had a basket of American Girl books, and I had put together an activity packet with American Girl word searches, mazes, word scrambles, etc. 

ACTIVITIES:  (4-4:30)  When each girl arrived, my daughter greeted them and when all the girls had arrived we escorted them to the craft table.  The girls and their dolls were introduced to each other, and told us about their doll.  The dolls sat on the couch near the craft table (to give input, but not get dirty).  Their first craft was making a bead necklace for both themselves and their doll.  The second craft was to decorate a large bag for carrying their American Girl items to each other's houses.  These bags were big enough that their doll should even fit into them.  I had gotten the bags at the $1 store, which my daughter picked out.  They decorated them with glitter glue, markers, jems, foam stickers, and flowers.  Next they decorated a mini bag which was for their American Girl Doll.  

GAMES:  (4:30-5) Next we moved to games.  The dolls came with us to all the games and helped participate.  Our first game was Sitting at the Mad Hatter's Table - a version of musical chairs.  While playing Alice In Wonderland the Mad Hatter's Tea Party music, the girls moved around the chairs.  When the music stopped they needed to sit down in a chair, cross their leg, and pretend to sip tea.  One girl was eliminated each time until there was a winner.  We didn't award any prizes for the games, instead we were good American Girls and encouraged each other and promoted team work. 

The second game was Cinderella's Shoe Hunt.  We made a pile of all the girl's shoes.  Each girl was blindfolded and then had to find both their own shoes from the pile and put them on.  Again the girls cheered each other on, and tried to help direct each other without being obvious (you're getting closer, warmer, etc). 

We then moved outside where we played Weed the Garden - It is similar to duck duck goose.  Each girl chooses a flower name of their choice.  They make a circle.  You choose someone to stand in the middle who is the weed.  The weed calls out 2 flowers names  and those 2 girls must switch places while the weed tries to claim one of them.  The girl left standing then becomes the weed.  We encouraged each girl to take a turn as the weed and/or give up their turn for someone else if they had had a turn already  good manners of an American Girl. 

Our last game was a Garden/Backyard Scavenger Hunt.  I had asked 15 questions that would lead the girls to the right answer.  They were again encouraged to help each other figure out the solutions to the problems, and work as a team.  Some of the questions were things like this My son likes to go down this, what is it & where did you find it?  (slide, playground)  There are many animals in my yard, pick one  what is it & where did you find it?  These are pretty, what is it & what color are they?  (flowers, their choice)  Our dog sleeps in here, what is it?  It's all over our yard and is soft on your feet, what is it? (grass)  This keeps you warm in the evenings, what is it & where did you find it?  (fire pit, patio)  This keeps everything save in our yard (and keeps our dog in too), what is it? (fence)  We have over a million of these in our yard, what are they? (rocks) 

DINNER/PARTY SNACKS/CAKE:  (5-5:30) After the scavenger hunt the girls came in and washed up for dinner.  The girls put their dolls at the doll table and they took their labeled place at the dining room table.  When they sat at the table we talked about manners and etiquette.  The girls placed their napkins in their laps, and said their please and thank yous.  Each girl was offered a choice of tea  sugar cookie or blueberry.  They were also served grape lemonade freeze grape juice in an ice cube tray, put in a glass, pour lemonade over the ice cubes.  Their meal included: sour cream biscuits,  checkerboard sandwiches (2 different colored bread pieces with cream cheese and raspberry jelly, cut into 1/4s  each child got a whole sandwich), banana fritters, mini cupcakes, Rainbow Parfaits (different flavors/colors of sherbet layered, topped with cool whip and sprinkles).  

MOVIE:  (5:30-7:00) After dinner the girls and dolls moved to the family room for an American Girl movie.  They were able to work together like good American Girls to pick the American Girl movie they wanted to watch.  We had Kit Kittredge, Felicity, Molly, Chrissa, and Samantha to choose from.  If for some reason the girls didn't want to watch the movie (which wasn't the case for us) they were allowed to read from the basket of American Girl books, or could do the American Girl activity packet I had spoke about earlier. 

FAVORS:  When it was time to go home, my daughter walked each girl to the door and said thanks for coming.  Each girl took home their bags and necklaces from earlier, the American Girl activity packet I had made, along with a star wand for their doll, a typed newsletter from my daughter (like Kit Kittredge does), 2 clips for their and their doll's hair, and an American Girl bookmark.  We actually had too much planned and didn't make it through many things.  Perhaps a sequel party.