A "Tea"riffic Party

My two year old daughter loves to play tea party with the Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Say Please Tea Set. She also loves to dress up. Recently I hosted a tea party for the mom's club that I belong to. We had so much fun.

I had a box of old clothes (including old dress shirts and ties that were my husbands for the boys) , costume jewelry, hats, tutus, feather boas, children's dress up heels (I purchased them from the dollar store), and old purses. I also had my daughter's tea pot sets set up on the coffee table so the children could play pretend. If you don't have any old clothes to sacrifice, check out the local thrift stores.

For the craft I had a teapot printable . I had crayons, markers, and stickers that the children could use to decorate the teapots. Other craft ideas include making fans or decorating little teapots or cups. If you are doing a tea party with older girls you could also do their hair and make-up.

Lunch consisted of sandwiches (I had cookie cutters available so the moms could cut the children's sandwiches into hearts or flowers), carrots, cucumbers, dip, crackers, and fruit. For dessert I made cupcakes and each child got to decorate their cupcake with icing and different types of sprinkles. On this day I relied on a boxed cake mix and a store bought container of icing. GASP! (I know).

Magnolia's vanilla cupcake recipe is the best cupcake recipe I have ever tasted. They are delicious. Usually this is the recipe I always use when making cupcakes. Magnolia Bakery is located in NYC and is very popular. People line up to sample their cupcakes. They were also featured in Sex and the City.

It has been years since I have used a box mix for cupcakes. I felt as though I was cheating my daughter and her friends out of of something special. I know this is ridiculous and that no one even noticed nor would any mom blame me for using a box mix especially since I was entertaining with a two year old and a three month old. It almost felt as though the day wasn't complete for me without these special cupcakes though. Silly, right?

Decorations consisted of a lace tablecloth (it was from Wal-mart) and a vase of flowers on the side table in my kitchen. Since it was fall I stuck with fall colors. I would recommend putting a clear piece of plastic over the tablecloth to make for easier cleanup. If you have a teapot you can also use it as a decoration but also fill it with juice to serve to the children. You can also use paper doillies as decorations for the table.

After lunch we had a sticker hunt. Each child was provided a little plastic bag in which they could put their stickers. I laid the stickers in easily reached spots for the children to find and each child was able to collect 10 stickers. This way all the little ones got the same number of stickers and it was fair for all.

You can also lead the children in singing "I'm a Little Teapot". Unfortunately I didn't do this since I can't carry a tune. Truthfully, no one in my family can sing. I was always conscious of the cacaphony arising from our pew on Sunday mornings growing up. It was a good thing trying out for the choir was not required otherwise I probably would have been the only child rejected from the tryouts.

For favors I made white bags (with a piece of ribbon and a gift tag) look like tea bags. I filled them with all natural fruit loop cereal and licorice laces so the little ones could make edible jewelry at home. Before everyone left, my daughter walked around with a little flower pot and gave each child a flower. The flowers were lollipops. I printed out the flowers from the DLTK website. The one was actually a sun but it reminded me of a flower. I cut the flowers out and attached them to the lollipops with glue dots. I used Yummy Earth Organic Lollipops which are the "yummiest" lollipops. I just placed a piece of floral foam in the clay pots to hold the lollipops and I thought they looked simple but cute. My little 2 year old was adorable as she walked around. I kept urging her to give the children a flower and say "thank you for coming" but it kept coming out in her toddlerese "tank you comin".

There were a lot of good resources that I found when planning the party. Below I listed some of the links I utilized in the planning process.

Hosting a tea Party
Tea Party: Unforgettable Celebrations From Family Fun
English Tea Party Crafts
Party Crafts (also from the Family Fun website)
A Whimsical Children's Tea Party (recipes)
Kids Party Fun (party supplies and party ideas)
Tea Party: Games, Activities, & Crafts