My daughter, Karen, loves Barbie. She has every kind under the sun. For her ninth birthday celebration I used Barbie as the theme. It was fantastic.

We decided to be creative and make our own invitations. Karen, a cut out pictures she could find in a Barbie magazine. We made a collage on the covers of the cards we made out of pink paper. We folded them in half and wrote all the party information inside: Location, date and time as well as to bring their Barbies.

Think Pink! Karen told me pink Barbie's favorite color without question. I bought a lot of pink artificial flowers and twenty sheets of pink poster board at the craft store. Karen helped me decorate the house the morning of the party. I cut a couple of the poster boards into rectangles and sticky taped them on to the living room wall. Karen and I drew lines around the edges of the rectangles of poster board to make them look like windows. We then drew pictures of the view outside: forests, fields of cows and castles . We cut houses out of the poster board and created a miniature, two dimensional town in our living room floor. Karen and I made miniature planters out of the last of the poster board, put the artificial flowers in them and placed them in front of the miniature town.

We bought a set of Barbie themed paper party goods. I put the paper tablecloth over our dining room table and set it with the matching paper plates cups and napkins.

Every girl we invited arrived with her Barbie, though one girl's mother made her bring two in case someone else forgot hers. There must have been over twenty Barbies at the party. I thought we'd get them mixed up, but I was amazed. Apparently nine year old girls have no trouble telling their Barbies apart from the others. I took many photos of the fashion show they put on with their Barbies.

After that, the girls had the idea to put on a Broadway play with their Barbies. They rehearsed for about a half-hour, then put on a very cute show.

Lunch was hot dogs, tater tots, strawberries and cherries. Which Karen said are Barbie's favorite fruits. I think the girls giggled more during the meal than they did while playing.
You could probably guess we had a Barbie cake. The cake was made like a beautiful ball gown. The Barbie inserted into the top looked like a princess. "Happy Birthday Karen!" was written in pink gel icing across the middle of the cake dress. It was so nice I took lots of pictures. The girls thought the pink bubble gum ice-cream I served with it was fantastic.

After the meal Karen opened her gifts. I took more photos. The girls looked so nice sitting around Karen in their party dresses. My daughter was very happy about the two Barbies she recieved. She immediatly ripped them out of the boxes and started playing with the dolls and all the accessories that came with them. When was a girl I don't remember my Barbie dolls coming with that much stuff.

After the presents, the make-up artist arrived and the girls got their hair and make-up done like any Barbie of their choice. I took more pictures to record the results.

The party was a big hit. Every girl went home with their own Barbies and happy memories. Karen cuddled up in her bed that night with her new Barbies next to her.