Ideas for tea party bday party?

[LuckyMommaToo]

DD will be turning four in May. She's interested in having a tea party. Probably around ten kids. I'm thinking:
-- long table white tablecloth, maybe pink tulle on top of that as well
-- thrift store china cup and saucer at each place?
-- would love to have white gloves for each girl, but not sure where to get these?
-- besides the tea itself, maybe we'd make tissue paper flowers?

Any ideas?
thanks,
-e

[AAK]

We made little tea sandwiches with a flower cookie cutter. Instead of white gloves (I never thought of that) we used dress up jewelry on each guest when they arrived and put sparkles on them (to make them fancy). They got to keep the jewelry in lieu of a goodie bag. I think the tissue paper flowers would be fun, we also like the tissue paper butterflies, or you can have them decorate little boxes to put the jewelry in. Buy a couple extra cup/saucer in case one gets dropped. My girls like it if I serve the tea and speak a bit of french--or in a pinch made up french!

Amy

[staceychev]

What a cute idea! I love the idea of the thrift store tea cups... honestly, you could probably get them inexpensively enough to be the party favors!

Are you going to serve real tea, or hot chocolate? Whenever we go to a local tea house with DD, she gets hot chocolate in her tea pot.

You can also make little tea sandwiches to serve. Nothing says "tea" like tiny food!

[Just1More]

I did a birthday tes party with dd when she was two. It was a blast. She was kind of little, but we all still really had a good time.

I made a tea pot cake. You bake two smaller cakes in bowls, and then flip one on top of the other to make a ball. Then, you make a top, spout, and handle out of salt dough and attach it with toothpicks. Ice over all of it. I decorated ours with a string of tiny fake flowers.

I love the real cup and saucer idea, but since I had two to four year olds coming, I decided I would go with plastic. I found a really cute multi-colored plastic set, and bought two so we'd have enough. Then I found dog shaped sippe cups because they looked tea potish and I felt with our crowd they would each need a tea pot.

In small individual bowls, I served crackers, pretzels, two kinds of cheese cut in fun shapes, two types of deli meat, strawberries, and blueberries. Lemonade to drink.

We played "lady-refining" games outside first. We walked with a cotton ball on a spoon (four year olds could race with eggs), and we walked with books on our heads. Then we used small cups to transfer water from one child to another to fill up a larger container.

THEN...I had asked that the guests not bring gifts per se, but bring something to help fill up her dress up box. So, we all went to her dress up box (where I had ensured there would be plenty to go around) and got ready for the party. Hats, jewelry, some had shoes and dresses, too. Then we went in to the tea party which I had placed on a table I had made to be perfect for a standing child. (I used cinder blocks and a piece of MDF and covered it with a white tablecloth and strew flowers all over it.) The children ate and ate and ate because they could help themselves to all the tiny bowls. It was really, really cute.

Then I gave them each a container of "shake your own ice cream" and we shook to music until it was done. We sang with the big cake, but I had also made cupcakes so I wouldn't have to send time dismantling te tea pot right then.

The kids took their doggie tea pots home.

[Masel]

What a great thread. I've thought about doing a tea party for DD1 the last couple years but figured she was too young.

The last few years Target had white gloves in the dollar section around Easter.

I thought about getting straw sun hats and having them glue on flowers and sparklies.

[LuckyMommaToo]

The last few years Target had white gloves in the dollar section around Easter.

Oh, that's a great tip, thanks! I also found these on etsy:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php...ng_id=41196389

I'm going to try thrift stores first (I'm a terrible shopper and almost never go anywhere other than Target, so I have no idea what our local thrift stores are like), but if I can't find anything really cute, I'll do the etsy ones.

I like the dress-up idea -- I think I'll mention to "dress in your finest" on the invitation. And maybe making necklaces is a good idea.

Just1more, your cake sounds amazing! I'm not capable of that, unfortunately.

Looking forward to any more ideas!
-e

p.s. For DD:

[tbone_kneegrabber]

The kids at ds' preschool got super into tea parties for a while. They would do them in the afternoon before pick up. They would all dress up in the dress up clothes, they would call each other miss ella and mr ethan and such, they would practice give compliments (they would go around the circle/table and say something nice about each other), they would also talk in "fake" fancy/posh voices. It was super cute!

[Just1More]

The tea pot cake was actually very, very easy.

Here's a link to a similar one.
http://www.cakes-you-can-bake.com/cu...apot-cake.html

If you google "teapot cake" you'll get tons of hits, and you can search google images for decorating ideas.

[limette]

Don't know if you're still reading this thread but I thought I'd post seeing as your party isn't until May.

I'm doing a tea party for my dd2's second birthday next weekend. It'll just be me, dh and the two girls.

We have a purple vinyl table cloth that's is going on the table with a large (covers most of the table) lace doily on top. I picked up the doily at the thrift store for $2.

I also bought a cute elephant shaped tea pot, flower shaped bowls for jam and clotted cream, a sugar bowl and tiny milk jug, and bird shaped salt and pepper shakers. We have a two tiered silver plated tray from a previous party. Also picked up some paper doilies to put on the plates and nice floral teacups from the thrift shop.

Today I picked up a bunch of spring flowers from the grocery store to go on the table in milk glass vases (thrift shop) and a 1L canning jar.

Using 10 sheet packs of pastel coloured tissue paper I made these pom poms to hang from the ceiling along with paper flower garland and balloons.

I printed out pretty place cards with our names on them. Also made party hats out of purple scrapbook paper.

For food I'm making
(*I always go overboard on food)

minted radish tea sandwiches
pimento cheese tea sandwiches
cucumber tea sandwiches
ham salad tea sandwiches
raisin scones
lemon tarts
carrot cake with cream cheese frosting
lemonade
tea

We will be dressing up but no gloves, hats or pearls!

The party will be held in our dining room if dh manages to finish the reno by then. It would be great to have it outside but it's still cold, snowy and mucky here.

That's I've got. Have fun with it, I'm so excited for ours!

[Sydnee]

I did one last year for my 6 year old. I had borrowed oven safe tea cups from a friend and bake cakes in them, and piled pink frosting and sprinkles on top, they LOVED them! They also were outside for most of the party, so I brought out finger sandwiches, and water with sliced strawberries and chocolate dipped fruit. Lots of fun!

[Tummy]

Great thread! Subbing!

[LuckyMommaToo]

Yes, I'm definitely still reading! I looked at every thrift store in town and didn't find even one cute matching cup and saucer, so just got these from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Yedi-Houseware...ref=pd_sim_k_2

They are SO cute. I'm really pleased. Limette, I love those pom-poms and will also make them if I can figure out a way to hang them.

I scored some of those small metal spring-themed buckets at Target's dollar spot, so I'll put floral foam in the bottom and decorate the table with inexpensive fresh flowers.

Still trying to figure out the craft. Maybe making necklaces. Limette, I also really like your food list. For some reason I hadn't considered scones!

Happy planning, everyone!
-e

[limette]

If you don't want to put holes in your ceiling, run fishing line across the ceiling and use thumb tacks to tack it into the corners (of wall or trim) where a hole won't be visible. Then use more fishing line to hang them done from that.

That tea set is adorable! I could not find a nice traditional looking tea set in any retail stores, just mugs. Luckily one of the Salvation Army thrift shops has a glass case specifically for tea cups with matching saucers.

For crafts you could do fake pearl necklaces. We bought some from a dollar store in pastel colours to make napkin rings. We used thin floral wire for the rings but you could use string for the necklaces.

Paper doily fans? If you don't mind the mess you could get some small pots and have them pot up some bedding plants to take home or plants seeds.

[limette]

I'm just posting to say that I can't wait to share pictures of dd2's tea party tomorrow! The dining room is mostly reno'd, just in time and the decorations are up and the table is set. I'd take a photo now but the lighting sucks.

See you tomorrow!

[LuckyMommaToo]

I'll be back tomorrow to check out your photos!

Having a hard time tracking down inexpensive china teapots. Ideally I'd have three, but I can't even find one to my liking. Any ideas?
-e

[limette]

Originally Posted by LuckyMommaToo

I'll be back tomorrow to check out your photos!

Having a hard time tracking down inexpensive china teapots. Ideally I'd have three, but I can't even find one to my liking. Any ideas?
-e

I had the same trouble but eventually came across the cutest elephant teapot at Home Outiftters for $10. I think the store might be Canadian only.

Here are the pics.

[sapphire_chan]

Hats? Craft stores have cheap straw hats frequently that you could decorate or have the kids decorate. That'd also protect little faces from the sun if you hold things outside.

Thin slices of lemon for going in the tea would be awesome, as would sugar cubes.

For another teapot or three, check if there's a HomeGoods store in your area.

Target has a couple elephant teapots and a penguin teapot, also some pretty Corelle kettles.

[limabean]

Adorable ideas!

Petit fours would be cute for the cakes, or you could do like we did for DD's last birthday and do little pastel cupcakes with white icing piped on.

It was really easy -- we just used storebought white icing, divided into little bowls and microwaved for 5-10 seconds at a time until it was thin, then we added 1-2 drops of food coloring to make the pastels and dipped the cupcakes. Then just put non-microwaved white icing into a baggie and snipped the corner for piping.

[LuckyMommaToo]

Limabean, those are adorable cupcakes. We'll have to see how frazzled I am that week. I was thinking about getting one of those miniature tea sets, like these:
http://www.aspencountry.com/default.asp?dept_id=709
as part of a cake topper.

I had forgotten about Homegoods -- will def check there for teapots. I was hoping for quaint, old-fashioned floral ones, but may have to make do with more modern versions. Animals would be cute.
-e

For DD: