American Girl Doll Lea Travels To Cohasset

For those of you American Girl Doll fans out there, you're probably well aware that the 2016 Doll Of The Year is named Lea Clark. No? Neither was I until I had a very special request for a Lea-themed 8 year old birthday party. Turns out Lea is one cool chickie - an adventurous young lady that loves travel and photography and, as you can see in her books and movie(!), her life is changed by a trip to Brazil. So, it was time to bring Brazillian crafts, photography and a bit of tropical fun to Gigi's! How we love a good custom theme!

For starters, we transformed the studio to Lea's tropical oasis with a custom backdrop for photo ops - including everyone's favorite Brazilian critter, the SLOTH! How psyched were we that hibiscus flowers are naturally pink and orange? We added in our signature pink and orange cupcakes - with a splash of tropical green for Lea's love of the environment - and topped them with sea turtles (of course!), included personalized sugar cookies with our guests' names for party treats, and the scene was set!

As with every Doll & Me party, there was a gorgeous tablescape for the dolls, too, complete with a Birthday Doll Throne, just like the real Birthday Girl Throne in the studio! For this party, we jazzed it up a little with tropical flowers and fruits to tie in with our Brazilian backdrop. And there you have it.

No, no! Unlike many parties you see featured on Pinterest that have gorgeous dessert tables filled with edible treats and everything perfect and shiny but zero activity (what do they actually do after those kiddos are hyped up on all that sugar???), at our parties we want things to look gorgeous, but so much more importantly, we want the kids crafting, dancing, laughing and having fun!

So, once the dolls were settled in at their table, the girls got to work creating beaded wish bracelets for the dolls and themselves. The wish bracelets were inspired by two things: traditional wish ribbons of Bahia, Brazil, and the wish bracelets you can purchase at the AGD store! Since we love to bring the DIY element to every party, and given Lea's love of all things Brazilian, we used colorful round, faceted beads as well as colorful, stone turtle beads, and gorgeous silk ribbons to decorate the girls and dolls with happy wishes! We also made pom pom flip flops for the dolls, decorated sunglasses for the dolls and girls and then, of course, started the photo session!

We took a photograph of each girl with their doll in front of the Brazilian beach hut backdrop and created custom journals for the girls to take home and enjoy decorating and documenting their own summer adventures. Meanwhile, the girls were busy serving up a doll sized spread of pizza, cupcakes and my favorite element: doll sized coconut drinks! (I'll post soon how to make these goodies yourself!) No doubt, Lea Clark would have LOVED this party!

Happy Birthday, Mischa!

We're so happy you chose Gigi's

and we loved creating a custom theme for you!