Chloe’s Malibu Barbie Pool Party

We recently celebrated our beautiful Chloe’s 6 birthday with the most amazing Malibu Barbie pool party! Can you believe it, my baby is six! It was when I was pregnant with Chloe that my Instagram account organically started to kick off, and here we are many years later, still loving the Instagram space, loving my blog and sharing life milestones with you. As you know I absolutely love children’s birthday parties too, and spoiling my children and their friends with a wonderful day. It would have to be one of my favourite things and their parties are always a highlight of our families year.

The Theme
When we come up with the themes for these birthday parties we try to think of one that will be on trade, current and exciting. Of course we also choose a theme that the children will LOVE! When it came to the Malibu Barbie Pool Party these two things really collided, because Coco truely is a Barbie adoring girl. When I suggested the party theme to her she was absolutely thrilled.

The Location
As always we hosted the party at our home Palma Soleada, as we have the perfect property for a garden party. We used a grass space at the front of the house for the main party location, and of course restyled the pool area to suit the theme.

The Pool Space
I was in charge of turning our pool space into a haven of pink perfection. I purchased some towels from Pillow Talk (which we now use as bathroom towels,) two pink flamingo floaties from Kmart (which I gifted Chloe for her birthday,) hired some blow up balls from The Occassion Co, changed our cushions covers to a hot pink, and lastly purchased some sunglasses for the girls to take home as a gift. It truely was a transformation and was so much fun to work on.

Our party planner
As we have done so over the past few years, we worked with the incredible My Little Party Hire to create a fun and fabulous party for Chloe. Jasmin hs planned six parties with us now. Each party has been a different theme, and each has been just as incredible as the last.

My Little Party Hire specialises in eco-friendly parties with no plastic, with an aim to minimise the impact on the environment. Now you might be wondering how you can have a Barbie party and make it eco-friendly, but let me tell you that you definitely can. Of course some of the items I used to decorate the pool were made from plastic, but the important thing to note is that none of these items were single use plastic, and everything will be used again for years to come. We also chose to hire items like the blow up balls as a way of keeping our environmental impact low.

Of course Jasmin was in charge of setting up her area of the party on our grass space. Everything she used is beautifully made from natural material, and often made physically by herself. With every choice that she makes Jamsin thinks of the enviroment, so you will see in the images that even fruit is used in the Barbie Lounge to hold-up the stands for the miniature bunting. Jasmin even takes the rubbish away, composting what she can and recycling the rest. She is the most amazing party planner and I can’t believe I found someone who loved parts just as much as me. How lucky am I!

Jamsin thinks of and sets up everything… games, water urns, drinking glasses with petals on them, a hand washing station, basket for the gifts, seating areas with shade, and so on… She truely is a party magician.

The Barbie Lounge
This was a really fun suggestion by Jasmin which she then created for the party. Chloe’s little friends were asked to bring along a barbie to to play with at the ‘Babie Lounge.’ There they could wash their Barbie in the spa with bath bombs and eco-friendly glitter. There were hand towels dry the barbies with once they were done.

Activities and entertainment
On top of swimming in the pool and playing at the Barbie Spa, Jasmin created a bracelet beading activity. The girls were given string, beads and a metal initial of their name to create a braclet to take home as a gift. The children loved this and it really broke up the time in the pool so they could have a rest.

I also hired a ‘Barbie Box’ from The Occasion Co for the children to have fun and take pictures in.

The Cake and Cookies
Sweet P Cakes and Cookies provided the cookies and main birthday cake for the party. The cookies where set up on the children’s place settings and were so sweet! There were more styles of cookies then I can remember, but all in theme with the Malibu Barbie Pool Party vibe. In fact, is was Ellena from Sweet P who suggested the Malibu Barbie Pool party in the first place. Clever and creative Ellena!

The cake was a flamingo floaty and it was so cute! Also so delicious and all of our guests were complimenting not just on the beautiful design, but the taste too! We went for chocolate this time.

Ellena is such an amazing cake maker and all around incredible human, we are so lucky to have had her create our cakes for years now!

Invitations and signage
Little J Design created the most beautiful Barbie inspired party invitations for Chloe’s special day. She also created a custom sign for me to be able to stick on the front of the ice cream cart (more on that coming soon.)

The Food
For the party food we worked with the wonderful Ruby from Journey Street Food. She created the sweetest, child friendly graze for Chloe’s guests to enjoy. Food is obviously there to be eaten but also acted as decor as well. The children dined on sandwiches, meat, crackers, fruits, cupcakes, fairy bread, macaroons and more. Ruby’s selection was so beautifully presented that it did just that. I gave her our dietary requirements and she handled everything else. Ruby also created a smaller graze for the adults. I was blown away by Ruby’s attention to detail and just the fact that the food was so fun and playful for the children.

Ice Cream Cart and Ice Cream
We thought that ice cream would be the perfection addition to a pool party, not to mention that summer in Queensland is hot, hot, hot! I hired the cart from Sunshine Event Co and borrowed decor from a friend. The bunting was of course from The Little Shindig Shop. I sourced the ice cream from Cup and Cone, who are a local company who actually have their own ice cream set up where they can supply ice creams at parties and markets etc. Their ice cream is real fruit and tastes delicious. You can find them at Yandina, Noosa and Eumundi markets. We chose to have the strawberry and banana ice creams, and both were absolutely delicious.

Party favours
I love to give a party favour that isn’t sweets and lollies. Something fun for the children to take home and enjoy for weeks to come. For the Malibu Barbie Pool party I thought that makeup would be the perfect gift for our little guests. I contacted the wonderful Oh Flossy to organise an Oh Flossy Mini Makeup Kit and an Oh Flossy Cosmetic Headband for each of them. Oh Flossy makeup is natural, comes in recyclable packaging and is earth friendly, is never tested on animals, made in Australia and easily washes off with water. On top of this the company is owned by an absolutely beautiful family.

Barbie
Can you believe that we invited Barbie to Chloe’s birthday party and she actually came! Jane from A Princess Wish is my go to party gal! Jane has come to our parties dressed as Elsa, Ariel and now Barbie. She has also worked on a lot of my friends children’s parties too, and the sweetest thing is that the kiddies are non the wiser that all of these magical characters are the same person… shhhh!

Jane arrived at the party in theme, exactly as you would imagine Malibu Barbie to look. She spent time doing face painting and interacting with the children, posed for photos and helped make sure the party ran smoothly. Jane can engage games with the children and keep them entertained for the whole party. She is always happy, fun and such a delight. Having a party entertainer really takes the pressure off of the parents and allows them the time to have fun at the party too.

Piñata
Piñata Pals created the coolest ‘Barbie’ piñata in the form of a barbie shoe. It was such a great and fun addition to the event, it looked so on theme as well. I filled the piñata myself with smarties in recyclable paper boxes to keep in line with being eco-friendly.

Bunting
Our beautiful bunting was handmade by The Little Shindig Shop, who creates the most wonderful handmade decorations. Based in Melbourne they can create bunting, tassels, party favours and more, then post them to any location.

Outfits
I wore two outfits which were both from Billy J. Chloe and Rosie wore swimmers and outfits from Rock Your Baby.

Photography
We have been so blessed to have had Nicola Holland Photography photograph almost all of our special occasion as a family.

I am quite honestly so lucky to work with such a beautiful bunch of small businesses on these parties. The ladies behind them incredibly inspiring and always the most wonderful people to share our speical moments with. Wha delightful and dedicated bunch!