Barbie Party 8 year old

My daughter was turning 8 years old, and decided that she wanted a Barbie birthday. Instead of doing the traditional pink and lavender Barbie birthday we took a different approach. We decided to have an I Can Be" Barbie birthday. Barbie has a line of dolls that are about the different jobs/careers you can have when you grow up. My idea was to have the girls come dressed up as a job they'd like to be when they grow up. The invitations were homemade. I bought blank cards and decorated them with ink ribbon and cute Barbie stickers. On the inside they said "Macy is turning 8 isn't that great?! Barbie is the theme and it's all about what "I Can Be". I also included a letter to the mom's with more detailed information...especially asking them to have their daughter come dressed up as something they are interested in being when they grow up (for those who didn't come dressed up I had a tub of dress up clothes for them to dress up in when they got here). We had everything from a nurse to a dancer show up (my daughter was a teacher). For the decorations I didn't use any premade Barbie decorations. I took my daughters Barbies and set them up around the house "doing jobs" (baby doctor office worker dog trainer etc.). I also had a couple of Barbie posters hanging up. For plates cups balloons streamers etc. I used solid colors of pink orange yellow and lime green to coordinate with melamine Barbie plates I found. I had the plates set up on all the tables. The girls used them like charger plates (putting their paper plates on top of them). They took them home at the end of the party. (I purchased them at the Dollar Tree).
For activities I had the girls try out a couple different jobs. The first was a jewelry maker. We made backpack decorations. I had premade key rings w/jewelry cording attached. I had lots of beads to chose from and I had also prebagged the letters to thier names for the decoration. The girls enjoyed this a lot. They also got to try thier hand at cake decorating. I made individual little heart shaped cakes for the girls to decorate. I had three different colors of frosting in piping bags plus a lot of different sprinkles. I had premade little flags made out of toothpicks and stickers with the girls name on it. As they finished thier cake we stuck their flag in it. When they were all done we sang happy birthday to my daughter and then ate our creations. They really loved doing this. I also did a matching game. On a piece of paper I made a list of jobs in a column on one side of the paper and then in another column on the other side of the paper I had job descriptions. The girls had to match up the correct job to the correct description. I did about 15 different jobs I recommend doing only 5-10. They liked it but it was a bit overwhelming. For food I did finger foods so that I could have it all prepared before everyone came. Things like little sandwiches cressent wrapped little winnies fruit kabobs and a couple different salads (mostly for the moms).
For the favors I purchased bright colored canvas bags (Oriental Trading Co.). We stamped their names on them and decorated them with fringe. Inside we put a matching cup and bowl to the plates I used on the tables homemade glitter soaps in the shapes of hears and flowers homemade pony tail holders (tied ribbon on elastic bands) homemade pens with fake gerber daisy flowers attached w/floral tape a plastic zip bag with Barbie on it that had some ponytail holders in it (99 cent store) and a few other Barbie things like magnets and barettes. For the thank you's we gave each girl a thank you note w/a picture of all the girls together at the party plus a homemade Barbie sucker (made out of candy melts you can buy at Michael's and a "Barbie" mold I found on ebay). All in all it was a very fun and different party. It's always nice when you can remind your child that they can be anything they want to be. :-)"