Doll Stuff from Dollar Tree

Hi all!  I was at Dollar Tree Monday night, doing some shopping in preparation for "Birthday Season".  What, you may ask, is Birthday Season?  In our household, it's a 3-month season, spanning from February to April, in which my three daughters have 3 consecutive birthdays. 

I used to think it would be pretty convenient to have 3 birthday parties in a row.  Now, having lived through several years of it, I'm not so convinced.  There are some advantages, like being able to give the girls similar gifts and knowing they only have to wait one more month until their birthday comes.  But overall, it's just completely crazy!  By April, I'm a puddle of mush just trying to survive long enough to reach May. :}

So, in the coming months, I'll probably post a few things here and there about the parties.  So far on the agenda, we have a "Plum Pudding" party for my middle daughter in February (not Strawberry Shortcake, mind you...just her friend Plum...my daughter likes the idea of a party all in purple, her favorite color), a Toy Story party for my youngest in March, and a Dolly and Me party with an American Girl emphasis for my oldest in April.

I've found that my best bet is to do most of my prep work in January, as things just keep snowballing from February on.  That was why I was at Dollar Tree.  I was trying to do as much of my treat bag shopping as possible.  We always give the girls' party guests a little bag full of party favors.

Once again, I'm being entirely too wordy. :}  The main point of the last 4 paragraphs is to get me to this point:  while shopping, I found some great doll-sized goodies that I thought you might like to know about.

First off, I found these really nifty tiny bobby pins.  I'm sure these existed somewhere in the world, but I'd never seen any this small.  They're the perfect size for 18" dolls!  And at 50 for $1, it's a great deal. 

Here's a pic of one of the bobby pins next to Tess, so you can see the actual size.   I think they shouldn't pull her hair too much either, because they're coated with something that reminds me of the special coating they put on some curling irons.  I can't wait to try some new hairdos with these! :) 

I also found this pack of 500 hair rubber bands.  According to my American Girl hairstyling DVD, these should be a good choice for doll hair.  I'll keep you posted on how that goes...I'm always a little leery about using rubber bands on hair, but at this price I figured it was worth a shot!

They have had these cute foam puzzles for a while at Dollar Tree.  I picked the Toy Story design because it fit with my youngest girl's party theme, but they also had Cars and Disney Princess as well.  These make a cute play mat and puzzle for you dolls. 

Here's Hailey demonstrating how big it is next to your doll.  Maybe the scale's a little small, but I think it still works. :)

I was keeping my eye out for fun favors that would work for dolls to use for my oldest girl's "Dolly and Me" birthday.  When I saw these cute little Lisa Frank noisemakers, I knew I'd found a perfect party favor.  It's just the right size for Hailey.

Here's a close-up of the picture inside.  There were 8 different designs in all.  And just to let you know, these aren't made that well, so they probably won't last all that long, but they should provide some fun at the party!  :)

I'm so excited I found these...they'll be just perfect!  This is a set of four key chains.  Each one is a little blank booklet/journal that snaps closed, and each one features a different Disney Princess on the front. 

I'd purchased a "Princess and the Frog" one of these earlier, so I took a picture to show you how perfect the size is.   All you have to do is remove the key chain, and you've got a little journal for your doll.  :)

Hailey was really excited, because I also found some fun "Tangled" goodies. 

Here's a cute little mini notepad.  These came in sets of 6.

Dollar Tree also had Panini sticker packs from "Tangled", "Toy Story", and other movies.  I guess there are coordinating sticker books that the stickers go into.  I didn't see any of the books there. 

Here's what the sticker pack looks like on the outside.

I thought it would be fun to try and use these to make a collage or some mini posters for Hailey.  She was super excited when we found this special foil sticker in one of the two packs I bought. :) 

That's all for now.  As I find more things, I'll keep you posted on the blog.  I'll probably do at least one post for each of the girls' birthdays, too, just to show you what we did. :)