The Barbie Party

Now that we're done philosophizing about present opening at kid's parties, here's what we served. I hate to admit I completely forgot to photograph it because I was so stinking busy having fun and running back to my house to let people into the bathroom at my house. (Older townhouse pool = no public bathroom) Oh well. It is kind of a bummer because the food was delicious and we had a wonderful time eating it. Alas! I'll tell you about it anyway!

We decided to go for a tea party theme, since Barbie is kind of like a princess. Princesses have tea parties all the time, right?

The beautiful barbie cake.  You can see our refreshing drinks in the background!

We served three different tea sandwiches, goat cheese and cucumber, pb and J for the kids, and egg salad (thanks Mom-in-law!). I also ran across a delicious cold orzo salad recipe just a few days before the party that turned out to be a huge hit. It was made with orzo, red onion, bacon, peas, mint and feta and it was incredible! There was also fruit, apple chips, potato chips (hey, everything can't be a break from tradition!), veggies with dip (thanks sis!) and cup cake cones with home made ice cream. Instead of soda, we served hibiscus tea with lime slices and water chilled overnight with pineapple, ginger and mint in it. It was delicious. And the crowning achievement was a fabulous (seriously, beautiful) Barbie cake decorated by my mother in law. The kids could not wait to taste it!

Cute fruit landscape courtesy of my Mother-in-Law

We decorated with barbie stuff, fresh flowers, balloons and streamers. And instead of plastic toys as party favors, we just gave the flowers to the little princesses. They didn't seem to notice the difference.

I was pretty excited about how it turned out, especially because it's the first part of that size I've hosted at our townhouse. Well, at the pool anyway. And the kids had a great time even though they had to run back to my house every time they needed to use the bathroom.

Here's a full length shot of the barbie and the roses we gave to the princesses in attendance.

 The best part is that after we came home, my husband sweetly sent me upstairs to take a nap while the girls played with the new toys and he cleaned up the remaining destruction. Could it get any better?