Tea Party- A Novel

This past Saturday was Emma's tea party to celebrate her 6th birthday. All of her friends were asked to wear their party dresses and we had 10 beautiful little ladies join us for 2 hours of fun.

We began the party by moving a table into the study so that all the girls could gather and make these waving hands. I love to have busy work for them to do as we are waiting for everyone to arrive.
After that we split the 10 girls into 2 groups and my hired helpers (Maddie & her best friend Leah) played the bucket game in the foyer with the girls. If you ever saw the bucket game played on the Bozo Show when you were a kid, then you know what I'm talking about.

I took the other half of the girls into the family room and we played bingo. I made the cards from some I found on Martha's website & laminated them and just used a large circle punch to make markers. Afterwards, Daddy was in charge of the pinata in the basement while I finished up some things for the main event. You can see in the picture below that the birthday girl got a little carried away with the jewels during craft time.



The tables were set using lots of candy for decorations, necco wafers as confetti, pretty colored kisses, strawberry whoppers, vases filled with jelly beans, taffy, pretzel rods dipped in chocolate and sprinkles, birthday cupcakes and teacups filled with cotton candy. The girls were encouraged to eat the decorations once the tea party began.

The places were set with china and a mix of teacup and saucer patterns. Each plate was placed upon an antique hankerchief and each teacup had a candy necklace hiding inside of it. I made these bracelet kits to also serve as place cards and since we didn't have time to make the bracelets, the girls took them home in their goody bags.

I bought gloves and boas for each girl and passed them out to them before they sat down to eat. The girls were served a menu of Lemon Tea (lemonade), Apple Tea (apple juice), peanut butter finger sandwiches, cheese finger sandwiches, carrot sticks, grapes, pretzels, cheese cubes and butterfly crackers. Maddie and Leah waited on the girls, taking orders and pouring tea. Each table was given a bell and encouraged to ring it often when they needed something. The "wait staff" was directed to only give them a little bit at a time so that they could have fun ringing that bell. And boy did they!

Some of the girls enjoying the party

After the tea party, I had all of the girls go upstairs and then come down one at a time, stopping at the landing to pose so I could take a picture of them. Afterwards we sent them to the basement to play in the 50 pink balloons that we had blown up and put down there. They happily kicked and hit the balloons and screamed at the top of their lungs until their parents arrived while Maddie and Leah kept an eye on them. Hiring those 2 was the best 20 bucks I've ever spent. My friend Jolene reminded me the day before the party to not get so caught up in in getting everything done, that I didn't enjoy it myself. I took her advice and enjoyed every minute of it. I'm already thinking about next years theme!

I've gotten feedback from several of the Moms and apparently the party was a huge success and I've been told more than a few times that the girls say it is the best party they have ever been to. Emma enjoyed it so much that she actually started crying when it was over because she didn't want it to end. That's all the thanks I need.