This year's party was a blast! I loved the crazy amazing costumes everyone had, I loved the bright happy textiles and surprisingly, I loved the food. (Cocunut Basmati Rice might be my new favorite food.) My favorite part was surprising everyone with a Henna artist there to do Henna tatoos. Everything went perfectly and I'm pretty sure everyone had so much fun. Now for the clean-up....
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
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The party is cleaned up and done but the pictures are just getting uploaded. It was such a success. My little seven year old was beaming the entire time so even the minute things that were forgetten or messed up didn't matter. The invites (here) were sent out ahead of time complete with miniature one for the invites dolls. I scoured the internet trying to find a Silhouette of a little girl with her American Girl Doll and couldn't find one so I ended up snapping a picture of Lorali and using that. It ended up becoming the 'logo' of the event. The Colors were pink, grey and white and it was inspired by anything vintage. For the food I choose a brunch menu with everything miniature/tea sized. About 20 minutes before the party Lorali mentions having an official menu like a restaurant so we printed some up incuding as many of her friend's doll's names that we could remember. Even the dolls had their own tiny menu's.
The dolls got their own table too. The tea cups were painted by the birthday girl and at the end of the party, everyone got to take one home for the dolls.
The decorations were actually pretty low key because it was set in the backyard. A few simple balloons were placed around the yard but I decided to focus on the tablescape instead. I cut scraps of leftover fabic for doll and little girl cloth napkins for added color and cute scalloped plates, individual menus and milk bottles added consistency to the table even with the mismatched teacups.
For the party favors we printed out a 'thank you' card and put all the little favors in bags (white for the girls, pink for the dolls). Inside was a balloon, pinwheel, notebook (one girl sized and one doll sized) and a doll quilt and pillow. They also added the cloth napkins and doll teacups they had used eariler.
Overall there are only a few things I wish I had changed.... one, the girls want to sit by their dolls the entire time. I should have had them sitting next to eachother all at one big table. and two, if I had had the time I would have had Lorali make a little bit of doll food out of polymer clay and the girls could have taken that home too. But, Overall I don't think anyone was disappointed.
Thanks for reading!
JJ
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This is the event that makes me happy to live in the South. Every year at this time I am homesick, I am missing family and I and struggling everyday with the fact that I don't live out west. Then I take my kids to a once in a lifetime memorable event that only exists here and I feeI better. Seriously, if you live anywhere in the South and have young kids this is one holiday event that you totally do NOT want to miss!! Last night Doug and I took the kids up to Bryson City, NC to see (according to Owen "The real-live Polar Express!".
After a 2 hour drive and a quick change into new Christmas jammies we were ready to present our Golden tickets to the Conductor for punching . We were off in a vintage first class dining car ready for an adventure!
The staff greeted the kids by grabbing them to dance and sing.
Then it was time for the all important Hot Chocolate!
and pastries... and marshmallow treats... and cookies. (Because apparently the kids needed to be even more hyped up for the ride!)
This is when the kids stopped even noticing the grown-ups and really did enter their own magical world.
Or maybe it was the the grown-ups turned into kids themselves.
And just when the kids were getting bored... the train ho-bo showed up!
And the frost set in.
The stage was set for something very magical to happen.
And someone very magical to meet.
Do you Believe?
We do!
If that doesn't get you in the Christmas mood nothing will!
*We took the kids to this back in 2007 and I have to say it was WAY better this year! The bells were better, the staff was better, the souvenirs were better.... and most importantly Santa was better. So kudos to GSMRR for up-ing an already amazing experience.*
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