A Tea Party

One of the things I love best about having girls is all the girly things I get to do. You may recall that I seemed a little bummed out at E's school chum party because it was coed and we could not do a princess theme. Well, as E's official birthday was this weekend, I got to make up for that by having a tea party for E, J and their cousin B.

It was a lovely little affair and surprisingly simple to throw. We didn't need a lot of fancy things since I had a lot of it in my china cabinet already. Ever since E was born I have been waiting for her to get big enough to actually break out the

real china cups from my china cabinet and have a bona fide tea party.

You see when I was growing up my mother had a china cabinet and she had her own special tea cups. Now my mother may have played tea party with me when I was small but considering she had to work lots, I don't think so, not so that I remember. So those fragile, colourful and pretty china tea cups were off limits. Oh how I'd stare in the cabinet and long to drink tea out of them. When I was a little older I used to pick my favourite flowered tea cup, have tea in it, clean it and sneak it back before my mom got home. Fortunately, I was very careful and lucky in not having ever broken a cup or gotten caught.

So since I love china tea cups, I figured I'd create some lovely memories with my daughters so they don't have to sneak. Now in my collection I have 3 tea cups that were my grandmother's so I have to be careful not to let the kids use them. They actually were used at my grandmother's wedding reception 55 years ago. Amazing.

Like I said, tea parties are easy to do. I was a little worried that I wasn't going to be able to make it look nice because I didn't have lots of stuff or even a lacy tablecloth. Well, I found some pretty material I bought a few months ago at the Sally Ann and used that as the table cloth, then I used some fake flowers to decorate the table etc and it turned out real pretty.

And as far as tea party food goes, crust less jam sandwiches, cucumbers, mini scones and cookies etc in dainty portions were a big hit. Then after we cleared the table, we made pearl bead bracelets and then a pretty foam dress craft. I glued a magnet to the back of them and voila they each have a pretty fridge magnet.

I even used some colourful fluffy yarn and crocheted a row around some wire and made the girls each their own fairy garland crown.

Then hubby dredged up memories from his old serving days and managed to get the pretty pink napkins to fan out on their plates.

All in all, I think it turned out well and the girls seemed very happy. J was even telling daddy at bedtime that she hopes mommy does a pretty tea party for her birthday. So I guess the party was a hit.

Happy Sixth Birthday Sweetie!