February 26, 2019

Barbie Glam Party

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Over the past few weeks, I’ve shared parties that I’ve done for my boys, so today I am sharing a cute party that I threw for my daughter a few years back. Six years is a few, right? It makes me sad to think about how long ago this was. My babies are growing so fast. Sniff sniff.

I’ve actually done this party a couple of times. It was inspired by one of my favorite birthday party memories from my childhood. When I turned 7, my mom threw me a dress-up party for my birthday. All of my friends came dressed up in their prettiest dresses. I wore one of my mom’s dresses with long, pink gloves and a flowery pink hat. Mom had bracelets for all of my girl friends. We ate treats on a tea set Mom bought me and she made a fancy cake with a Barbie in the middle; her dress was the cake. Mom made a little runway in the living room where we all took turns walking down the aisle and modeling our dresses. I remembering feeling so pretty and special that day, like a little princess. That memory became so precious to me and I’d always wanted to recreate that with my own girls.

I think that because of my fondly shared memories with my girls, they’ve each wanted dress up parties similar to the party my mom threw for me. First it was my step-daughter, when she turned 9. Her mom and I actually threw this party together; imagine that! We came up with a couple of fun activities. She made some food and I made the cake. I found a cake pan just like the one Mom had used so many years ago on my cake. We made jewelry and did make-up and of course her friends all came in their best dresses.

Next was Maurina (my adopted daughter). For her first birthday with us, she wanted a dress-up party too, but she wanted hers a little bit different. Hers was a glamour birthday; I rolled out the red carpet and had props for her friends to pick out to wear and keep (feather boas, sunglasses, jewelry, etc). I have no idea where my pictures have disappeared to (this was before the days of everything digital); all I could find was one picture of Aubrey on the runway. She’s a cute little model, but I wish I could find the other pictures! Take my word for it- it was a really cute party!

And then came my Aubrey. Just like her mommy, she wanted a dress-up party for her 7th party, but she wanted a Barbie theme for hers. Her friends were invited to come in their dresses and I made the most adorable photo booth that looked just like a Barbie box! We just so happened to have gotten a water heater a couple of weeks before her party. It was the perfect size and shape for a Barbie box! I cut out the front, painted the box and lined the inside with striped wrapping paper to match the rest of my black/white/pink decor. I found a Barbie logo and blew it up really big and printed it from my computer (same with the Mattel logo and silhouette). How adorable is this?

We took pictures of each girl when they arrived and then printed out their pictures while they were there. For one of the activities, they decorated little foam picture frames and at the end, we put their picture in for them to take home. They turned out super cute!

We also made candy bracelets, which were a huge hit! I took whatever candy I could find with holes in it (lifesaver gummies, peach rings, cut-up licorice, etc) and bought stretchy bracelet string and let the girls make their own candy bracelets.