Birthday Tea Party

For Rhiannon's 7th birthday I agreed to host a tea party for her and her friends and their dolls. This I must admit was a stretch for this non "girlie" mommy! But it came off wonderfully and very girlie. I put a lot more work into it then I thought I would but it was worth it to see what a fun time she had and how much they all seemed to enjoy themselves.

Rhiannon chose to send email invitations this year. We invited the girls and their favorite doll to come for some tea in their nice dresses. There was a cute picture of little dolls sitting together in a group in beautiful dresses that she picked out herself. The guest list was quite tough for her as I gave a strict size limit because everyone had to fit comfortably around the table. She ended up choosing several friends from her homeschool group and several from the neighborhood. Though there were more she wished she could invite.

Even as an adult these mixed group parties are a strain on me so I was a bit concerned about how it would go with the kids not really knowing one another. Even the neighbors she invited do not really know each other all that well. It was quite and took a little longer to break the ice but everyone got along really well and were playing nicely by the end. In many ways I think the kids handle this better than we as adults do.

For me majority of the work happened beforehand. Yesterday was the big shopping day gathering all the supplies I needed. I decided to purchase little teacups and saucers for each of the girls to use at the party and take home as their gifts. I went to many stores and finally ended up at Goodwill where I found them. We also picked up some little pink satchels from the wedding aisle in the party store and some candy and little trinkets to put in the cups. To each satchel we attached the girls nametag and it made seating set, the cups pre-chosen and gave the girls an easy way to keep track of their items.

This morning I was up early baking, preparing and setting the table. I also made Rhiannon her yearly flower crown. Each year we make the kids a crown of fresh flowers to wear on their birthday. A fun tradition that we all look forward to. It is easy to do. You gather a selection of fresh flowers, some floral wire and floral tape. You size the floral wire to the child's head and then snip it off (sometimes you need to roll two wires together to make a wider headpiece). Then you lay the stem of the flower on the wire and use tape to wrap around the flower and the floral wire until it is secure and then repeat until the crown is done. In the beginning it took about an hour now I can do one in under 30 minutes. They are beautiful and the kids love them.

The table was set, the house was relatively clean, the flower crown done, the food finished and the girls arrived. They began by playing with their dolls and all Rhiannon's American girl clothes and horses and other doll supplies. After a bit of that they came to the table for the first course of our tea. I made little tea party menus that sat at each girls place setting and here is the text - there were fancy little images and nice fonts on their actual menus.

Welcome to Rhiannon's 7th Birthday
Today's Menu

Drinks
Pink Lemonade
Hot Flavored Teas
Water with lemons

Sandwiches
Peanut Butter and Jelly
Cucumber and Cream Cheese

Sides
Honeydew Melon
Strawberries

Desserts
Rose Cupcakes
Sugar "Cakes"
Triple Chocolate Cake
Candy

The sugar cakes were actual sugar cookies (in american revolutionary time they were called cakes) that the girls got to decorate themselves with different colored frostings and sprinkles and candies. The rose cupcakes are pictured above. They were easy though time consuming to make. The rose part is fruit by the foot separated and wound around the top to shape a rose. The leaves were made by twisted fruit roll ups.

I was surprised that many of the girls did choose hot tea, I thought it would be all lemonade. I was further surprised when several asked if I was serving green tea, which I then brewed. Initially, I brewed all sweet fruit flavored teas and of course we had pink lemonade as a stand-by. As expected the PBJ went much faster than the cucumber cream cheese sandwiches, though several did try them. Of course dessert was the preferred course.

In between the courses the girls played outside in the yard, visited the robins nest, played American girls, played dress up, drew on the chalkboard and played hide and go seek. The younger two, Sirah and Ciaran, were entertained by our wonderful babysitter who did an excellent job just spending time with them and keeping them from trying to attend the party. They of course also received their share of the treats.

After dessert, and a singing of "Happy Birthday", Rhiannon opened gifts. She received many wonderful gifts and she appeared to enjoy them all and be thankful. I never did like the whole opening of gift thing at a party but we do it and I always breath a nice sigh of relief when it is over and went over without a major issue coming up. She was thankful to everyone and the girls ended their time with more American girl doll play, learning the minuet, and playing hide and go seek. The last girl left at 5:30, nearly 4 and a half hours after the party begun!

It was a great time and Rhiannon appeared to enjoy herself. It ended up more expensive and more time consuming than I initially thought but it was a special day and one that I think built a memory in her mind. I love those moments when I can see Rhiannon enjoy being a little girl, instead of growing up too fast so those moments I treasure. I think I had as much fun as them, even though I was the hostess. Hopefully I did a good job, since that is not high on my skill set. At least little girls in 2-4 grade are relatively easy to please and have a short memory.

After they left, I did a quick pickup, a quick dinner and then packed the kids into the car to go to a friends house for another cook day for our dear friend who just got out of the hospital. Our homeschool group has organized several cook days for her so people can come together and maker her several items or dishes at a time. We finally arrived home after 10 and ready for bed after a very busy but wonderful day!

Going to bed exhausted,
Tenniel