The Miller Memoirs

~American Girl Surprise Party~
For the past year, Amber has been informing me of her "golden birthday". A "golden birthday" is when you turn the same age as the "date" of your birthday, so this year Amber was turning 7, and her birthday is February 7, which means--it was her "golden birthday". She was thrilled! And because it was her "golden birthday", she really wanted it to be "extra" special. She started asking for a birthday party a full year in advance (we usually keep to family parties around here). And that is when my scheming began...

For Amber's seventh birthday, we threw her an American Girl surprise party. This may have been the trickiest thing I have ever pulled off. Planning the little details, and handing out invitations all the while keeping it a secret from Amber. Even while the planning was in the works, we had several situations that caused me to hold my breath. One time Amber asked if she could have a party...my response was tricky--I didn't want her to know about her party, but I also wanted to be honest. Another time, Amber saw Hailey and I discussing things, and we simply dismissed it as something for her birthday. Again, I was worried that her big "surprise" was completely obvious. Another time, Bryan had asked me about the pinata while I was talking to him on the phone, and I answered him while Amber was standing right next to me. I died as she started jumping up and down chanting, "I'm getting a pinata. I'm getting a pinata. I'm getting a pinata." After that--I was positive she knew something was going on, and I was even more sure when the big day arrived, and oddities kept happening. Oddities like: why she had to go to dad's work for four hours when mom was home?, or why I didn't want her to bring her American Girl doll to work with her?...all of these things just capitalized on the fact that I was sure she was just playing along, and she knew that she was getting a party!

So, as the moment of truth arrived, I held my breath--sure of the "lack" of surprise...; however, I was wrong! As she walked into the house, her expression was pure shock, joy, and excitement! She turned in a couple of circles surveying her friends, and the decorations. Shock was evident on her face, and my heart beamed! We had done it! We pulled it off! (The day of the party two of my dear friends, Ruthanne Horton and Salena Langston, came over to finish with preparations...I never would have been prepared without their help--I was so grateful to them! It was because of them that we were able to "truly" pull it off.)

Amber and Hailey love the American Girl series! They love the stories, the dolls, and the movies. It seemed like an obvious theme for Amber's birthday party; however, it proved difficult to plan. There were not many ideas on-line, so I had to start from scratch. I can't believe how much time I spent in preparing for this party. Finally, as ideas evolved into concrete plans, this is how it happened:

For the party, we first played games focusing on the different era's of the American girl dolls, and then we had a "Samantha" themed dinner.

Here is a list of games I found (I researched forever...but, I think it was well worth the time...the girls had a blast!):

1900 Games: SAMANTHA

Arch Tag-The children are in a circle. Two children form an arch with their arms as the other children rotate through the arch in a circle. On signal (I used music), the circle stops and the arch traps someone. The person trapped goes in the center of the circle and waits for another person to be caught. They then form a second arch. The last person caught is the winner.

Hot and Cold-One person is it and leaves the group. The rest choose an object in the room and when "it" returns they help him find the object by singing and increasing the volume as he nears the object and decreasing when he moves away from the object. (We did this to find their goody bags.)

Musical Chairs-We played the opposite of musical chairs where nobody got "out" of the game, but rather they had to all pile on less and less chairs until there was only one chair left, and all the girls had to get on it in someway or another.

Musical Present-(I used this for party favors.)We passed a present, and each time the music stopped--the children would take off a layer of wrapping. When the last layer was pulled away, there was an American Girl Short Story book for each girl. I found a set of six books on-line for only $1.99 on both Amazon, and Barnes & Nobles. I ordered a couple of sets for a perfect party favor. The children were thrilled with their party favors. (We had five different layers of wrapping.)

Other games during Samantha's era that we didn't play, but looked fun:
Hot Potato

Kick the Can

Jail Break-The children will choose someone to be "it". The person who is it counts one o'clock, two o'clock, three o'clock rock, four o'clock, six o'clock, eight o'clock, nine o'clock rock, ten o'clock, eleven o'clock twelve o'clock rock, midnight! He then tries to find the others who have hidden. When someone is tagged, the go to jail (usually the porch). The children who are not tagged, try to step on jail and this will cause a jailbreak. the others are free. When all the children have been sent to jail, the first one in is now the person who is it.

Musical Hoops-Place Hula Hoops on the ground, one less than there are children. When the music stops, the children must stand in a hoop. Remove one hoop, but not a child for each round. Continue until there is only one hoop and all of the children are it it.

Here are the games we played in Samantha's Era:

~Arch Tag~

~ARCH TAG~

~Musical Chairs~

1940's Games: Molly

Blind man's Bluff-One person is blind folded, and the other children hide. After the child with the blindfold has been spun several times, he/she searches for the other children (the other children may not move once the search has begun) by yelling "Blind man's", and the other children respond by saying "Bluff".

Other games during Molly's era, that looked fun:
Blind man's Wand-A variation of Blind man's Bluff,this version utilizes a stick in which the other children take turns grasping one end while the "blind" player holds the other end. The "blind" player then asks 3 questions to the player holding the opposite end of the stick, and the aim of the game is to recognize the voice of the player who replies. Therefore, the players try to disguise their voices.

Musical Chairs

Battle of the Oranges-Divide the kids into pairs. They will battle one pair at at time. Each warrior is armed with a tablespoon on which an orange is placed. On "go", they will try to knock the opponent's orange off the spoon, using only the one hand which hold the spoon and the orange. The winner is the one left with the orange.

Here are the games we played for Molly's era:
~Blind man's Bluff~

~Blind man's Bluff~

Kit Kittredge/Josephina

Kit's story is centered around the great depression, and a key aspect to her story is Kit finding the money that was stolen from their home before her family loses their home. With this in mind, we had a "Treasure Hunt" to find Kit's treasure, which was a goat pinata, which was also Josephina's pet.

~Treasure Hunt~

1800's Games: Kirsten

Drop the Handkerchief-(This is the version we played) The main idea of this game is to drop the handkerchief without the other players knowing. The players in the ring must look toward the center at all times, and they can't turn their heads to watch the runner behind them. If the runner is creative, they can try to trick the other players. For instance, they may speed up the pace after they drop, or not vary in pace at all to leave no clue. The runner can also make a lot of noise to distract the other players. As soon as the player in the circle discovers that the handkerchief has been dropped behind them, he must pick it up and chase the runner who dropped it. The runner may run around the outside of the circle, or at any point through or across the circle. The goal is to reach the vacant space left by the person chasing. Whichever player reaches the vacant space first stays there, and the other player takes the handkerchief and begins the next round.

Drop the Handkerchief #2- (I found this version later, and it seemed fun.) The children chant:
A tiskit, a tasket,
A green and yellow basket,
I wrote a letter to my love, But on the way, I dropped it;
A little child picked it up and put it in his pocket.
The child that is "it" drops the handkerchief on someones head, and that person must try to be the "it" person back to their spot by chasing them around the outer edge of the circle (much like duck, duck, goose).

Other games that looked fun:
Button Button

Clothespin Drop-hold the clothespin to your nose, and without bending over, try to drop it into a mason jar that is sitting on the floor.

I also found on-line an idea to make jam and bread for Kirsten's time period.
~Drop the Handkerchief~

~Drop the Handkerchief~

JULIE

Julie is from the 1970's, and wore crocheted hats. For Julie's activity we made flower clips to go on a crocheted hats. I found the crocheted hats and flowers for a great price at haloheaven.com.

DINNER:

For dinner I decorated for Samantha's era. Everything was suppose to look fancy just as it would have looked if we were really in the early 1900's. I even researched food items from that time period, and pizza came to America in the early 1900's, which seemed perfect and simple. Before we ate dinner, we opened "star boxes", which I had prepared beforehand with notes from each girl's mom about each girl's inner star. The American Girl theme is "FINDING YOUR INNER STAR", so I wanted each girl to know how truly special they really are, and to remember their inner star! It was so fun! The girls were so excited to hear what their mom's wrote about them! The table had star confetti, and over the table there was star cutouts hanging from the ceiling.

~ STAR FRUIT PIZZA in the American Girl Colors~


For Goody Bags the girls left with a book, a crocheted Julie hat, and a flower hair clip. They also had the starburst candy (from the pinata). I chose "starburst" candy, because I wanted to focus on the "inner star". I spent less than $3 per bag, which I felt was great considering they got a book, a hat, and a hair clip.

When the party was over, Amber pulled me aside, and told me that during the party she excused herself. She said that while she was away, she started to cry because she was so happy, and grateful for the amazing party...she wanted to make sure that I knew that she was grateful--that makes it all worth it!