Celebrate Barbie's Birthday with Games and Activities

March 9 is Barbie's birthday. Celebrate the introduction of this famous children's toy back in 1959 with a Barbie birthday party your kids will love. Decorate with pink and encourage all your little guests to dress their best and make Barbie proud on her birthday.

Barbie themed birthday favors, plates and decorations can be found in almost any party store, but you can also save money by using off-brand generic pink decorations. Young children won't notice the difference and few kids will care whether Barbie's face is on their paper plate when that plate is filled with cake and ice cream.

Make Barbie's themed invitations to the birthday party by tracing a paper doll shape on heavy cardstock. Draw a face and hair on the paper doll to resemble Barbie. Make a paper doll dress with tabs to told around the paper doll and keep it in place. Script your invitation instructions (i.e. date, time, place, etc.) on Barbie's torso and the inside of the paper doll dress so when your invited children remove the paper doll clothes they can see all the instructions. Be sure to remind your guests to bring their favorite Barbie dolls and toys like the Barbie Jeep or special Barbie play sets to enjoy at the party.

If you have many kids coming to the party, let kids make their own name tags when they first arrive. This will help everyone feel included and serve as a first activity to keep everyone busy while they wait for other guests to arrive. Provide large pink pin-on buttons and paint markers or permanent markers. Let children write their names on the large pink buttons, decorate with available stickers, sequins or rhinestones, and then pin on their name tag to wear the rest of the day. You may also want to provide tiny pin-on buttons so younger children can make name tags for their Barbie dolls as well.

Once all the guests have arrived at Barbie's birthday party, plan a phone call from the birthday girl to thank guests for coming. If your child has her own cell phone, arrange for a friend to call her phone. Choose someone with a young, female voice. When your child answers her phone, "Barbie" will ask her to put the phone on speaker so all the guests can hear. She should thank everyone for coming and apologize for not being able to come herself. Younger kids will probably want to ask Barbie a question. After a few questions, "Barbie" can explain that she has to go (pick up Skipper, answer the door, report to work) and quickly make her escape.

Very young children may have fun making Barbie a birthday card at this point. Provide lots of pink construction paper, markers, stickers, and other craft supplies. Have "Happy Birthday Barbie" written on a poster so they can practice their spelling. Older children may think this is cheesy, so you can skip it for them.

Next, host a Barbie fashion show for all guests. Provide trunks or bags full of dress-up and costume clothes. (Ask parents to bring extra from home and write each child's name inside their dress-up clothes so nothing gets lost. You might also be able to borrow from a local elementary school, day care, or theater group.) Give children a set amount of time to get together their outfit. Set up a runway in the largest room of the house or venue. Play fun music like Hannah Montana or even a Barbie soundtrack. Children can take turns walking the catwalk and posing. Have a few parents posed at the end of the runway to act as the press photographers - you're going to want photos of them doing their fashion show anyway!

While your guests are all dressed up, have a Barbie photo shoot. If it is pretty outdoors, take some photos in the flower gardens or front yard. If possible, arrange for a pink car to be in your driveway and take the girls' photos "driving" their Barbie car. (Pink Cadillacs can often be rented in larger cities for Elvis events, so look into this.) If the weather is not good, hang a black or white sheet over one wall in the living room. Set up a few lamps around the photo backdrop. Let girls pose with props like hats, purses, shopping bags, and their Barbie dolls. Encourage groups shots and silly faces. Let your kids really break out their shells and get into for the cutest pictures. You can upload digital pictures and print out copies while kids are doing other activities. Send these home as favors to remember their Barbie birthday bash.

Take the digital photography to another level for older children. Provide some Barbie story books for kids to flip through. Assign children to pairs or small groups of three. Each group will write their own Barbie story. Using the Barbie dolls they brought with them, guests can pose their characters and photograph the scenes. Help children use things around the house to achieve their intended scenes. Provide large pieces of construction paper, folded in half. Staple the pages along the seams. Make a cover for the story book from heavy cardstock or cardboard covered with fabric. Print out your children's posed Barbie scenes. Then groups will put their story together, writing or typing their text and gluing the pictures on the right pages.

Finally, have a fashion design contest for your Barbie fans. Using the paper doll invitations, show children how to make paper doll clothes with tabs to fold around the paper doll. Set a time limit and provide craft materials. Each child can make one or more outfits to be judged. Encourage them to glue rhinestones, feathers, sequins and other fabric scraps onto their paper doll patterns to add texture to their designs.