Spring Tea

For my daughter's 6th birthday, one of my friends suggested that I have a tea.  I'd thought about it, but never followed through so her comment gave me the bit of motivation I needed.  As usual, I was far too busy to take pictures so once again, huge thanks to my friend Jeni for capturing all these photos while I ran around being a server for the day.

I used my white vintage 50s dishes with a few of my blue teacups mixed in.  Looseleaf tea strainers were gifts that also acted as placecard holders.  I also printed some menus.

My dining room isn't big enough to accomodate all my guests so my living room became my dining room for the day.

I've had this sugar pot for a while and have never used it so I was happy to be able to fill it sugar cubes and I added the necessary sugar tongs. 

First course - Roasted Tomato Basil Soup.

For the finger sandwiches and dessert, I stacked some of my favorite dishes.  I didn't want to purchase towers but I think this worked well and I don't have to worry about how to store more dishes. 

The guests provided several deserts including these beautiful lemon tarts ...

Jeni made these lovely (and delicious!) individual cheesecakes and even made the sugared flowers on them.

Part of the fun was the opportunity to wear a hat ...

Why don't we wear hats anymore?  So elegant ...

... and fun!

I was too occupied with the entertaining aspect to find the time to shop for a hat but I came upon a somewhat expensive but fun fascinator while perusing ideas online.  I later realized that I had most of the materials to make something similar myself.  A raid of my craft closet and a $3 headband later, the result ...

So, if my living room was my dining room for the day, what did I do with the furniture?  My dining room became a sitting room for the day.

Here are most of us at the end of the day.

I think we all had a lot of fun with this.  For our next tea, I'm taking a break from the kitchen and we'll be gathering at a local garden with a historic house that has occasional tea events.  I'm very much looking forward to it!

A Magical Birthday

My oldest daughter celebrates her 6th birthday tomorrow and we held a party for her over the weekend. 

The 6 on our front door greeted guest as they arrived.  It was a spring break project made from a piece of cardboard, some hot glue and lots of coffee filters.

I had some snacks out for the kids, popcorn and pretzel wands.  The tray had some scratch paper that  revealed colors underneath.  It was a sort of back-up for me in case the kids were bored, but I ended up sending that home with the kids in their goody bags because they were all occupied elsewhere the whole time.

More fun things for the kids ...

I ended up having to rearrange my living room in order to accomodate everyone.

We needed the space for a magician!

We had lunch on the patio.  It was tight with over 15 kids, but we made it work.  We were really lucky to have a warm, beautiful day to spread out outside because we had a pretty packed house full of guests.

We've had a strangely warm spring, so the gardens around the house looked so much better than they normally do this time of year. 

After magic and balloon animals, the kids had lunch outside.

(Huge thank you to my wonderful friend Jeni who got some wonderful pictures including this one while I was busy entertaining.)

Then, it was time for cake!

 

Goody bags were distributed and the party winded down.

It was a great day.  Everyone had a wonderful time and the birthday girl couldn't have been happier!

 

A Tangled 4th Birthday

My youngest critter turned 4 years old yesterday and we celebrated on Sunday.  We didn't have a big event planned with a ton of people.  I just wanted to surprise her and I think I succeeded.  If you have children and/or have seen the movie Tangled, this should all be pretty familiar.

The lanters on the window were 2 for $1 at the dollar store.  I was pretty happy to find those.  The window panels are actually inexpensive Ikea sheers that I layered over white curtains.  (I got the sheers on eBay because I didn't have time for the trek to Ikea.)

The banners were printed from a free template I found here.  I just cut them out, punched holes in the corners and connected them with a $1 ribbon.  The little dress was a gift for the birthday girl but it did not fit the adult mannequin so I pinned it on. 

The tower consisted of a birdhouse I painted with craft paints, a wrapping paper tube covered with grey paper and moss I already had, a cardboard base covered with green paper and a ton of hot glue.  In all honesty, it collapsed the next day but I only intended for it to be temporary.  I may reinforce it with a wooden pole and base screwed together if the kids are interested in it enough to play with it.  The hair coming out of the tower was a few strands from the larger braid on the table.

I did buy some tablecloths as well, but I was really surprised by how inexpensively you can get them online.  They're intended to be purchased in bulk for weddings, but you can buy them individually for only a few dollars in any color you want.  I'll also be re-using them for my other daughter's birthday in a couple of months so they were definitely worth getting over the plastic or paper tablecloths from a party store that are nearly the same price.

Speaking of that braid ... I purchased 4 rolls of yarn that came bundled from the craft store. I spent a couple of hours one night unravling it all around 2 chairs spaced a few feet apart. Then, I cut one end, tied the other end and braided it. The flowers are just 4 dollar store flowers that I took apart and hot glued on.  The table lanters are just craft paper with a sun I painted on.

In the kitchen ... I printed a sign from the pub in the movie on cardstock.  I had a couple of extra pieces from the banner so I just attached them to the chairs.  I didn't get a chance to take a picture, but I left out a crown and wand for each of my princesses in addition to Tangled activity pages from Disney that I tied together with ribbon found here. 

Since it was Superbowl Sunday, we had snacks before pizza for dinner (birthday girl's choice).  Some in cast iron pans, of course.  The toothpicks were made from the same template pages as the banner above.

The cake with Rapunzel addition.

It was a wonderful day and I had two exhausted but happy little ones at the end of it. 

Happy Birthday Sydney!