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Maryellen’s Fabulous 50’s Diner Play Date

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This post is spon­sored by Amer­i­can Girl, but as always, all ideas and opin­ions are my own!

Maryellen Larkin Doll ~ Lynlee's

My daugh­ter, Anabelle, is a huge fan of the adorable Amer­i­can Girl dolls, as are many kids her age… and, let’s face it, so am I! As you may recall we were inspired by the 2015 Girl of the Year, Grace, for her 8th birth­day, so we cel­e­brat­ed with An Amer­i­can Girl in Paris Patis­serie Par­ty. So at the end of August when Amer­i­can Girl debuted BeFor­ev­er™ Maryellen Larkin, a fab­u­lous 50’s girl grow­ing up in Day­tona Beach, Flori­da, we knew she was a must on our wish list!

The One and Only Maryellen book ~ Lynlee's

Amer­i­can Girl describes Maryellen as opti­mistic and ener­getic girl, liv­ing on the Flori­da sea­side. In her own words:

I have a heart full of high-fly­ing hopes and a head full of pie-in-the-sky ideas, even though they don’t all get off the ground. But I know that if I stay true to who I am and what I believe, the sky’s the limit.

Anabelle and I just loved the premise of her sto­ry {we can’t wait to read her book, The One and Only, togeth­er!}, as well as her out­look on life, so we decid­ed to plan a play date inspired by Maryellen and her 1950’s diner!

American Girl Maryellen Diner's Party ~ Lynlee's

Anabelle real­ly liked the idea of a din­er theme to resem­ble that of Maryel­len’s, so I decid­ed to style a tablescape to match. First, I set­tled on a col­or palette that would pair per­fect­ly with Maryel­len’s striped sweet­heart dress: aqua and pink! I made sure she was used as the cen­ter­piece of the table and cre­at­ed a sim­ple back­drop with met­al cor­ru­gat­ed let­ters spelling out DINER. To soft­en the let­ters a bit, I tied some twine and added lit­tle cabo­chon flow­ers in coor­di­nat­ing colors.

Maryellen Larkin Diner Tablescape ~ Lynlee's

Maryellen American Girl doll ~ Lynlee's

How cute are Maryel­len’s acces­sories?! She has a pearl neck­lace and bracelet, along with a cable knit purse to patch her sweater! So sweet!

Maryellen jukebox ~ Lynlee's

For addi­tion­al table decor, I used what is my absolute favorite item from the Maryellen col­lec­tion: her juke­box! Not only does it light up and play six pre-record­ed mini 50’s-inspired songs, but {now here’s the over-the top amaz­ing part!}, you can plug it into an elec­tron­ic play­er to play your own songs! So, we were able to con­nect it my phone to play music through­out the play date!

Maryellen's Diner Menu ~ Lynlee's

Maryellen Diner Table ~ Lynlee's

We kept the menu fair­ly sim­ple and true to a clas­sic din­er from the 1950’s, offer­ing cheese­burg­ers, french fries, choco­late milk­shakes and soda pop, which was actu­al­ly a blue punch mixed with a lemon-lime car­bon­at­ed soda!

Burgers & Fries served 50's Chevy food box ~ Lynlee's

The burg­ers and fries were served in THE most adorable pink 50’s Chevy food box­es from Via Blos­som! Aren’t they just per­fect?! Not only did they won­der­ful­ly fit the theme and match with the col­or palette, but they also come with food safe inserts so you don’t have to wor­ry! I also put some ketchup in met­al can­is­ters so each girl could have their own and it would­n’t mess up the cars.

Condiment Canisters ~ Lynlee's

50's Chevy food boxes ~ Lynlee's

Soda Pop ~ Lynlee's

The drinks con­sist­ed of the juice blend served in glass soda bot­tles, along with home­made choco­late shakes in tra­di­tion­al milk­shake glass­es! I added paper straws in the coor­di­nat­ing col­ors, along with some addi­tion­al twine and cabo­chon flow­ers for added details. By doing so, you can eas­i­ly match basic items back to your theme at a min­i­mal cost and be able to save them for future use!

Chocolate Shakes ~ Lynlee's

Salt Water Taffy ~ Lynlee's

I also found some taffy that came in these cute and charm­ing box­es that resem­ble the can­dies them­selves! They were ide­al as par­ty favors, espe­cial­ly since taffy is essen­tial for a sea­side diner!

50s Photo Props ~ Lynlee's

And I can’t have a par­ty with­out pho­to props from the incom­pa­ra­ble paper & cake! I just love uti­liz­ing pho­to props because, not only are they a great activ­i­ty for guests and pro­vide fun mem­o­ries, but they also serve as great par­ty dec­o­ra­tions! These 50’s themed print­able props fit per­fect­ly! I set them up in foam inside a milk­shake glass, then added pink cot­ton can­dy to look like a straw­ber­ry shake.

Seaside Diner Food ~ Lynlee's

Seaside Diner Shakes ~ Lynlee's

Diner Waitress ~ Lynlee's

Diner Food ~ Lynlee's

Diner Shake ~ Lynlee's

Diner Hat Photo Prop ~ Lynlee's

BeForever Maryellen doll ~ Lynlee's

American Girl Maryellen Larkin ~ Lynlee's

As you can clear­ly see, Anabelle just adores Maryellen! The 50’s motif is sim­ply adorable and we just can’t get over her amaz­ing wardrobe from the era. But a 1950’s theme is not com­plete with­out a poo­dle skirt and some clas­sic sad­dle shoes!

Maryellen Poodle Skirt Outfit ~ Lynlee's

Maryellen Poodle Outfit ~ Lynlee's

The premise of Maryel­len’s din­er lends itself per­fect­ly for a get-togeth­er! It allows for plen­ty imag­i­na­tive play, from tak­ing orders and serv­ing food to dress­ing up and danc­ing to icon­ic music from the decade! Maryellen has fit in per­fect­ly with Anabelle’s exist­ing Amer­i­can Girl col­lec­tion! And did I men­tion she asked San­ta for Kit Kit­tredge?! Now we’re just eager­ly wait­ing the announce­ment of the Girl of the Year for 2016! Any guess­es what she might be like?

Resources:

Doll and Acces­sories: Amer­i­can Girl

50’s Chevy Food Box: Via Blos­som

Pho­to Props: paper & cake

Fabulous 50's Maryellen Diner Play Date with American Girl ~ Lynlee's

 

Merci Beaucoup!



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Comments

    • Thank you so very much! We com­plete­ly agree… we love the qual­i­ty and sto­ry behind each one! ♥

  7. This is time­ly! We got the Amer­i­can Girl cat­a­log in the mail and my six-year-old fell in love with Maryellen. I’m not sure we can make it hap­pen for Christ­mas but we’re dream­ing about it for her birth­day next year.

    • Isn’t Maryellen the cutest?! We just love all her 50’s-inspired clothes and acces­sories! And my daugh­ter is always pour­ing through the cat­a­log, too! ♥

  9. I am pret­ty sure I would have DIED if I had had a par­ty like this when I was a girl. So adorable! Sav­ing for ideas for my twin girls some­day soon.

    • My daugh­ter also loves buy­ing the out­fits and switch­ing them out with her dolls, too! Maryellen is super sweet! ♥

  13. I love how they have dif­fer­ent themed Amer­i­can Girl dolls. They are so pret­ty and come with such pret­ty clothes.

  14. I LOVE IT!!! It just makes me want to go watch the grease movies and make an old fash­ioned din­ner to go with it. The Amer­i­can girl dolls are all so dif­fer­ent, I love how they all have their own style. Great pho­to­shoot you did!

    • Awww, thanks so much, friend! Total­ly reminds me of the Grease movies, too! I love all their dif­fer­ent sto­ries and per­son­al­i­ties, too! 🙂

  15. I’m just lov­ing the whole post! What a fun theme, and a great way to real­ly get into it too!! There’s just some­thing about that whole 50s era that is nice. 🙂

  19. This looks like so much fun! lol I love the theme and play­set. My mid­dle daugh­ter has asked for an Amer­i­can Girl doll for Christ­mas this year. Wink, wink! 🙂

    • Oh, thanks so much, Jes­si­ca! Maryellen is super cute! My daugh­ter also asked San­ta for an Amer­i­can Girl this year! 🙂

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