All Out Barbie Party - Pin The Clothes On Barbie

INVITATIONS:  Hand painted stem glassware from dollar store personalized with paint pen (name on base of glass). Inside glass was a paper with flower background faded out. On this was a Barbie pic (scanned sticker cutout with photo editing program) on the left. On the right it said, Barbie & Claire invite you to a party when and where stuff. They are instructed to bring this invitation glass and their favorite Barbie with them.

OUTSIDE DECORATION:  Garden arch decorated with silk flowers and tulle. Tulle bows on lights by door.  BARBIE - Barbie (young coworker who looks very Barbie-like as in tall, thin with long blond hair) arrived early to help Claire get ready. Other helpers Aunt Pam, Cousin's girlfriend Christina, Children's Director from Church. Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Buckwalter is a surprise guest who arrives later) 

DINING ROOM DECORATION:  Lots of issue paper flowers and butterflies on walls; Barbie plates and napkins, pink tablecloth and ribbon from chandelier with butterfly/dragonfly/etc hair décor items clipped to it (they never worked well on hair but looked quite nice hanging from the ribbon. Extra items were scattered on table like confetti. 

INTRO - Guests are greeted by Barbie & Claire. They receive gifts and give surprise flowers (favors purchased from Party City). Gifts may be placed on coffee table in living room.  Guests are guided to dining room where they place their personalized invitation glass and surprise flower at a place setting. (Claire's will be already placed at decorated seat - silk tulips along back attached with ribbon) Guests go to kitchen where they can put their Barbies in their goody bags (gift bags shaped like purses and decorated with flowers) & sign Claire's T-shirt (Personalized with Party Info using fabric paint). Then they can use colored pencils to color Barbie coloring pages found online or work on Barbie puzzle. When all guests have arrived and signed T-shirt, then Barbie says, Hi girls! I’m so glad that Claire has invited me to spend the afternoon with her - and you, her most special friends. I just know we're going to have a wonderful time! We're going to play some games and make some special crafts. Now, grab your goody bag and follow me for some fun! Barbie leads girls downstairs to the basement. (Put goody bags on designated table near center of room).

BASEMENT DECORATIONS:  Unfinished basement needed some help. Covered stored items with various bed sheets. Put away most large toys in small side area and hid most small toys inside play house. Borrowed fun noodle flowers from church (actually, I assembled them for the church, used them, then hung them up in Sunday school rooms) to hang around walls added wonderful color and really helped with the garden theme. Also had garden music playing on stereo which flows from speakers to basement and kitchen everywhere we had activities. 

PIN THE CLOTHES ON BARBIE GAME:  Barbie says, OK girls, my Barbie friend needs your help getting ready for the party. We have everything she will need right here in this basket. Pick an item from the basket, and then we'll blindfold you and give you a spin. Then you try and put the item where it belongs. After their turn, they pick the next player, then pick their prize (Use eye mask for blindfold) (Prizes are Barbie clothes place in goody bag in center of room) (Enlarged Barbie paper doll from online and cutout clothing shapes from paper printed with fabric textures. Items were 1-top; 2-skirt; 3-purse; 4-present; 5-earing; 6-other earring (used stick-on earrings)). Take a picture of girls, Barbie & Barbie Poster when game is done.

DOLL SHIRT & SKIRT CRAFT:  Barbie says, OK girls, now it’s time to get your Barbie doll dressed for the party. Doll clothes with supplies on plates and sample Barbie in shirt in middle of table. (Doll T-shirt craft from dollar store glitter glue (didn't come out well) & markers (didn't even work) were as waste, but worth the T-shirt anyway. Mother-in-law made skirt from lite denim material longer than your average Barbie skirt) Girls can undress their Barbie dolls (put clothes in goody bags) and put the clothes on their doll.  Then they decorate the shirt & skirt. Help girls as needed. Leave Barbies on table to dry. Really good to have lots of helpers here! 

BARBIE MATCHING GAME:   Barbie says, OK girls, some of my Barbie friends wanted to come to the party but they couldn't, so they gave me cards to bring instead. They each sent two cards with their picture on them - One for Claire, the birthday girl, and one for you, her guests. Unfortunately, the matching cards have gotten separated and I need your help to put the matching cards together. Can you help match the cards? Great! Why don't you each take one turn at a time and when you have found your match, you are done and may pick your prize. Use matching Barbie valentines covering the valentine message with a sticker printed with message from Barbie friend (sorry I couldn't come to your party, sure you'll have fun, Happy Birthday!). (Play like memory game - each girl takes one turn at a time. When they have THEIR match, they pick a prize. (Prizes are garden jewelry  pup in goody bags).

NECKLACE/BARBIE HAIR ELASTIC CRAFT:   Barbie says, OK girls, now it’s time to add the finishing touches. You're going to make garden party necklaces for yourselves and garden party hair elastics for your Barbie dolls. I know everyone and every Barbie doll will look great!  Pick beads and shrink art items. Color shrink art items. Adult punches hole and takes them to be baked. While they're baking, girls will string their necklaces. When shrink art is ready, assemble necklaces and hair elastics. I had counted out beads for each girl (ended up making friendship bracelets to match these necklaces -details later). Tied one end to barrel clasp. Next time, I will just replace the stringing material with better material  helpers made a knot and cut off extra, then many knots came undone (hard to fix). Realized had to use two loops to attach shrink art. This craft took longer than scheduled, but girls did well. 

PICTURES  Barbie says, Now that you're all so beautiful, we've just have to take some pictures. Would you each come with your Barbie dolls and have your picture taken with me? Then we'll take one big group picture together, OK? It will be a fun way to remember the party! Take a picture of each girl and their Barbie doll with Barbie decorated arch. (Another garden arch decorated with more silk flowers and paper ribbon and tulle) When all six girls are done, take one group picture. 

FRAME CRAFT:  Barbie says, We're going to need some very special frames for those pictures. Let’s come over here and decorate our own picture frames! Decorate foam frames (cut out frames and glue to 3.5X5 picture holders on cardboard) with foam and Barbie stickers.

BARBIE BINGO GAME: Barbie says, Well, there’s one more thing we need to do to make sure we're ready for the party. Do you know what makes a true Barbie? A true Barbie is not only beautiful on the outside, and I see that you girls all look very beautiful, but she is also beautiful on the inside. Let’s play a game to find out what makes someone beautiful on the inside. When you fill your bingo card, yell Bingo! And pick your prize. When you turn your prize over, you will find a paper that tells us one thing that helps make a true Barbie beautiful on the inside. We'll read each one together. Now let's play! Each girl gets a bingo card and butterfly markers (Butterfly punch found at dollar store punched markers from leftover foam). Barbie picks numbered foam butterflies from small plastic container. Use butterfly markers to cover numbers when called.  (Prize is candy jewelry) [1 - Be Yourself! (Don’t just follow the crowd); 2 Always do your best! (You always a winner when you do your best); 3  Be a good friend! (Friends are a treasure); 4 Never stop reading! (and learning)); 5  Be polite! (Use your manners); 6  Have fun! (Let them see you smile)]

GARDEN PARTY:  girls enter decorated dining room where they find their seats. Claire says Barbie prayer (Sunday school prayer with different words  Thank you God, Thank you God, For my friends, For my friends. Having fun together, Being friends forever. Thank you God, Thank you God. Rejoice!) Then food (fruit flowers copied from picture of fruit bouquet purchasable online û pineapple & cantaloupe daisies (slices of pineapple cut with flower cookie cutter and cantaloupe ball on top of center are attached onto a wooden skewer, strawberry tulips (strawberry turned upside down and slit crosswise on top then mini-marshmallow inserted to separate placed onto wooden skewer û I cut off stem but then they slid down skewer and I had to try to place grapes under to stay up, next time I'll leave them intact hoping that will work better & grape springs (just some grapes put onto a skewer) are arranged in vase in center of table; pb&j sandwiches made on very thin white bread cut into heart shapes; jello from star molds; cheese cubes and bugles and drink (pink lemonade) are served.

As eating is winding down, bring out Barbie cake (13X9 cake with Barbie sugar wafer and happy birthday candies arranged in middle with icing flowers (made by Aunt Pam) all over it) and sing Happy Birthday.  Almost forgot surprise flowers, so they brought surprise flowers to living room. They opened flowers and found some stick-on earrings and a number. In order of their number they came up to Claire who gave them their special friend bracelets (found a photo frame bracelet at AC Moore that had mini photo frames all around it. I took it apart so that I could use one frame for each bracelet. I had to make the bracelet with two strands due to its design. In each frame I put a little photo paper that said Claire’s Special Friend.  They were given one that matched the necklace they made. 

Gift opening time while CAKE is being prepared. Claire sits on her decorated chair and guest sits on another one. Each guest presents gift. They stay until the gift is opened and then a picture is taken with both girls and gift. 

PASS THE PARCEL GAME:  Girls sit in a circle, each with a wrapped gift (the journals). Mrs. Buckwalter (Claire’s adored kindergarten teacher who arrived during necklace craft) reads a BARBIE STORY. Every time the word Barbie is read, the girls pass the gifts around one place. When the story is finished, they keep the gift they are holding.  Time to eat cake! (and ice cream.)

RAPUNZEL MOVIE:  Girls watch Barbie as Rapunzel DVD in the living room. It was nice that all the girls had planned to stay for the movie since the party ran a bit over its scheduled ending (scheduled for 1-3). Most of them left before the movie ended.  A nice relaxing ending for the party. 

GOODY BAGS:  Added to goody bags were ring pops, Barbie fruit snacks, flower lollipops, Barbie stickers, single & group pictures from party and Thank You note ( like invitation but the picture on the left is a cutout of Claire and the words say Thank you for being a part of Claire's 6th birthday celebration. It wouldn’t have been the same without you. Thank you for the lovely present. But most of all, thank you for the gift of your friendship  that is my most treasured gift. Love, Claire VIDEO CD - while recording the party with my digital video camera, I realized I could probably make video CDs for our guests and helpers. My husband did a great job in helping me get lots of great video and still pictures. Then I made a video CD from the video and also added the pictures on the disc. (I have quite a few CD-Rs I rarely use).  A true pleasure since her princess party last year did not even get recorded since my old VHS video cameras battery died right at the beginning of it. Also ended up being a great save since my hard drive died a few days after the party and I had not backed up my pictures since then! P.S. These notes are to share with you all and to keep for her younger sister's party in a few years!