What a Great American Girl Party!

On Feb. 22, we hosted our 6th Annual American Girl Party.  This year, we featured Addy, the Escaped Slave.  We had a wonderful time!  We packed the Camden United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall with 80 guests!

Our speaker was Mrs. Marilyn Grasse-Brubaker, a local elementary teacher.  She spoke about the use of quilts & the Underground Railroad.  Marilyn is a marvelous speaker.

We made spool puppets just like Addy and her friends did in her books.  We feasted on food similar to what Addy would have enjoyed: corn bread, honey sandwiches (we added peanut butter and jelly options, too!), Benne candy, sweet potato pie and homemade ice cream!

We held drawings for prizes including an Addy American Girl doll.  Congrats to Allison K. - she was our lucky Addy winner.

Overall, the day was a great one.  Our crazy Michigan weather did not cooperate very well, but we still had a great turnout.

The only sad note was that we discovered that the American Girl company has chosen to “archive” their Samantha doll.  She was supposed to be next year’s doll to feature.  We were looking forward to having a big Victorian-style tea party with Samantha - now we have to figure out what to do instead.

I’d like to say an extra thanks to my board members: Cyndi, Holly and Joyce for all their help - I could never put these parties together without you.  Pat:  Thanks for all your help - even though you were sick and couldn’t come, I appreciate all you did to help us out.  Faith: Thank you for coming to help at our party - you were a great help to me.  Lauri: Thank you for helping us set up for the party and for donating your delicious homemade jelly.  Marilyn: Thank you for being our guest speaker - you did a wonderful job!  To the members of the Camden United Methodist Church: Thank you for allowing us to use your fellowship hall - we could never put on such a big event without your help.

Now that we have had time to rest, its time to begin our plans for next year!