We celebrated Kariss’ 8th birthday early with an American girl McKenna DVD viewing party!
Having never seen an American Girl movie, I honestly didn’t know what to expect. But knowing that Kariss loves gymnastics and the movie “McKenna Shoots for the Stars” revolves around gymnastics, I figured we were on the right track.
I also got a great response from her friends before the party and the parents afterwards. Mom after mom shared how they loved the American Girl movies for the lessons they taught and how the were so well made that the entire family could sit and watch them together.
So we decorated in McKenna’s colors of Aqua & Purple (one of my favorite color combinations, I might add), cut out star-shaped sandwiches, and watched McKenna learn that her identity is not based solely on what she does, but rather who she is (a lesson I had to learn for myself and shared here).
Even though Kariss doesn’t yet own an American Girl doll, I’m beginning to see that American Girl is much less about the ‘toys’ themselves and more about an overall experience for the girls. Just look at the fun we had!
I’d say the party was a huge success! All the girls got to take home Mckenna bracelets and activity sheets after indulging in some Cookies & Cream ice cream cake. Of course, Kariss insisted on dressing in her gymnastics leotard, which, ironically enough, is also purple and aqua (good thing because I had to take her to gymnastics immediately following the party!).
My only drawback was that I wished I had looked at how long the movie was first. For some reason I expected it to be one of those dinky DVD’s that was just half an hour, but no, this was a true feature-length film that ran about an hour and a half. So it was a little long for a party atmosphere, but again, perfect for our traditional family fun night. Nonetheless, the girls loved it and luckily, no-one started tumbling in the middle of my living room 
If you want to learn more about the latest in the American Girl DVD collection, you can read my previous post.
As a mom, I was just thrilled to watch my daughter be surrounded by her friends, their dolls and lots of laughter and camaraderie. Happy 8th birthday angel!
