Tea Party part four

After the girls crafted and cookied we sat down and read Tea for Ruby. They loved it! I was a tad worried they would like this part but my Zoe Bug is a big book lover and I wanted to do that for her. Luckily they all seemed to enjoy it. Another reason I wanted to read Tea for Ruby is because is taught tea party etiquette. How to sit, say please and thank you, great your guests (which I totally had Zoe do for each and everyone of them- and she had to take their coats and place them on her bed- along with the moms...so sweet) anywhosit...so on and so forth with the etiquette.

After the story each girl found their flower and took their seat. And they proceeded to stare blankly at the table. They had no clue what to do...it was funny. My mom and I got them started on their tea. Slowly but surely they all dove in. Here is what was on the menu...

Three kinds of tea with sugar cubes

Strawberry scones

Maple cinnamon scones

Mini cinnamon sugar muffins

Mini cookie sandwiches dipped in sprinkles

Carrot sticks- for good measure (;

PB & J cut out with heart shaped cookie cutters

Fruit cups

Mini Cupcakes

and peanuts...the only request from the birthday girl herself!

Some girls ate ok, but for the most part they picked and didn't really eat. But it was still just so pretty. I used my moms antique tea cups (her idea not mine!) and set everything out on glass platters. It was just so lovely.

I should add that nothing got broken until hubby was driving the tea cups and tea pots back to Moms house...something must have shifted and part of one of the tea pots broke off. I. Felt. Horrible!

Tea Party part three

I decided to do something crafty for Zoe's party and since we were taking cute teacup photos of each girl. Painting a frame seemed to make the most sense! So, I threw some of Steve's t-shirts over their party outfits and got them all painting! What a beautiful mess! I only used pink, purple, blue, and white paint. This way no matter how much mixing happened they would only end up with a shade of purple instead of brown. You could also do combos like red, yellow, orange, and white or green, blue, yellow, and white...so on and so forth, but you get the idea. As the girls finished painting I had coloring pages and activity sheets for them to work on while they waited.

After painting I sent the girls to the bath room to wash their hands and moved all the painting supplies and frames to the counter. Rolled up the plastic table cloth and set out mini flower shaped cookies. The table cover was the trick here...all of this happened within minutes! Of course having names on plates and cookies pre-bagged didn't hurt either. Once the girls were back I showed them how to squeeze a large amount of frosting from a tube onto a cookie and sandwich it together. Then we dipped the edges in sprinkles and put them back in the bags. I added a label to the top with their names so they could have a treat for later. I actually did this largely due to the fact that I baked 150 mini cookies for tea and needed to do something with the massive amount of leftovers!!! If your curious here is the cookie recipe I used... it is a favorite!

I would say both these activities went over really well! Only one tiny blue speck on my wall...but that is why I used washable paint!

Tea Party part two

I organized Zoe's party down to the last minute. My house was not big enough to have 7 girls running willy nilly through the halls! When each girl arrived I had her pick out a party hat and "pearl" necklace. I strung the beads together myself with a box of beads I found at Micheal's. I used a 40% off coupon making this a really inexpensive favor for the girls to take home. About $0.80 per girl...or so. I also added a pretty pink satin ribbon to each one. For the party hats I went to the dollar store and bought a package of shiny metallic looking hats and recovered them in the paper I was using for the party. The paper? I bought a pack of scrapbook paper, and once again using a 40% off coupon I got 160 sheets of coordinating paper for around $12. You will be seeing this paper on everything! I also added a crepe paper fringe around the bottom of each girls hat, and for Zoe I added a fancy "6" and pom pom on the top. After the girls had their hat and pearls on I had them sit in front of a giant teacup made of foam board and scrapbook paper and took their picture! I had Steven get the pictures developed within an hour so each girl could take it home at the end of the party! This was his one and only job! The pictures turned out SO great! This was a favorite of the Mom's too ;)

Tea Time part one

My Zoe Bug just turned 6 a little over a week ago. How did I become the Mother of a 6 year old!It baffles my mind every time I think about it! For her 6th birthday we threw a party for her and 6 of her school friends. But not just any party....a tea party! I decided to make it a big girl party and not a princess tea party... I have a huge belief that there is more to life when your little than just pink princess crap. And guess what folks? SHE LOVED IT!

One of the party favors was a tiny vase and flower. The vase? A cleaned out syrup bottle from Cracker Barrel! Then just tied a small tag on with their name to be used as a place card. I did this to stop any argueing about who gets to sit by who. Worked like a charm.