A Tea Party

Isabelle has been asking for months to celebrate her birthday with a tea party. We started working on it, but I didn't get the invitations out.  Things were very busy with the end of school.  I decided it would be better to wait until after school got out.  She has mostly played with her cousin who lived up the street, but sadly they have moved and will soon be on the other side of the country.  Especially with kindergarten starting in the fall, I thought it was important for her to make stronger connections with some of the neighborhood kids.  Unfortunately several ended up being out of town and one was sick.  We only ended up with one of the neighbors and the rest cousins.  They still had a lot of fun though.


The preparations began in the morning we cleaned the house and made sure everything was ready.  We made sugar cookies for them to decorate.   The dough was not cooperating.  we would cut out the cookies, but they would mush when we tried to transfer them to the trays.  Finally I rolled the dough out on the trays so we didn't have to transfer them.  It worked out well.  I don't have a tea set, and I thought about buying one. Then I had the thought that I had all those snake trays we had inherited.  What is the point if they just sit in the basement?  The neighbor girl was amazed that I was letting them use glassware.  My two nieces (the ones who were moving) came over early and the older one helped my cut up fruit and wash the trays. 

 

Finally everything was reading and all we needed were guests.  I was a little worried when it was ten after and no one had shown up.  I knew ahead of time that not everyone was coming, but there were a few I hadn't heard from.  As they showed up they went down into the family room where they danced to music from The Little Mermaid.  When everyone had arrived we returned to the kitchen where they picked out flowers to make hair bows similar to the one I made a few weeks ago.  While I glued the bows, the girls colored princess pictures. 

We then played games, which I found on a birthday party website.  We played "Kiss the Frog."  I had made a poster of a frog and while blindfolded they placed their kiss (a sticker) on the frog.  They thought it was a lot of fun.  Next we played "Find the Pea."  I had pillows placed in a circle.  Under one was a pea (a golf ball.)  A "real princess" would know they were on the "pea." This was repeated several times.  Also lots of fun.

 

After the games we returned to the kitchen for the tea party.   They decorated their cookies and had grapes, cantaloupe and punch.  Then we got out the cake and sang happy birthday.  Everyone enjoyed the snacks.

The cake was made by my friend Liz.  She  recently started decorating cakes and has done some pretty fun things.  Check out her blog here.

After they were done eating everyone was given a bracelet and a bubble wand, which they went outside to play with until parents arrived.  I thought that it went fairly well.  Especailly since this was my first time hosting a friend party.  I think that I enjoy hosting, but I always get really stressed out.  I also don't get into the whole decorating thing.  I don't think that the kids minded though.