Tea Party Birthday

I had a lot of fun coming up with ideas on how to decorate for my daughter's 5th birthday. She chose a tea party theme and from there the adorable ideas came flooding in. I made a hat tree and the tea party hats for each guest. My mother helped by making cute crocheted flowers for the hats. I ended up making 3 different cakes, and cupcakes! I was experimenting with my allergy-friendly baking skills. On the menu: egg-free, dairy-free and gluten-free varieties. I wasn't sure if or how they'd turn out. With a lot of praying, luck and patience, I was able to make them all and I even think all were more than palatable..maybe even tasted good!

I served all the kids' favorite finger foods: animal crackers, rice krispy treats, watermelon cubes, pineapple chunks, pretzels, graham crackers, and chicken nuggets (shaped like Mickey Mouse). The food and drink were served on kid-friendly table settings. Each table had its own tea set, but also juice-boxes nested into each tea cup for immediate consumption or to be used to fill their tea cups.

The children looked so cute sitting at the tables sipping "tea" and eating their snacks. Surprisingly, no one had any major spills or messes. I was prepared with vinyl tablecloths and tons of napkins close by. No need for them. The guests dined and dashed back to the playroom. Not before we took a ridiculous amount of photos. Between my husband (who has recently caught the "shutter" bug himself) and I, we snapped some of the most precious photos I could imagine. After a little quick tidying up, we called the guests back into the dining room for cake and birthday song time. My daughter was so ready to get herself a piece of at least one of the cakes. She actually woke up that morning and asked for cake before breakfast, so by 3 p.m. she had waited long enough. We sang, cut the cakes and passed out cupcakes and then guests fled for more fun outside in the bounce house and human size "hamster wheel" toy. I am amazed how fun can distract these little ones from the heatwave we had that afternoon. Overcast, but still  well into the 90's outside. They played into beet-red in the face and came back inside for more refreshments and ball pit fun in the playroom. Sounds like chuck e. cheese crashed our party, huh? I couldn't help myself and pretty much took up every bit of floor space and filled it with kid-sized fun. The party went by so fast. I thought we would also have time to take advantage of our pool, but after all the playing in the front yard and throughout the house with another break to open presents and pass out guest goody bags (shaped like tea bags stored in a giant tea cup), we ran out of time and good weather. The rain stayed away for most the day. I guess my wishes to the weather gods worked. Party fun was not dampened by drizzle!

Birthday girl table and tea set

Place settings for guests

Egg-free, Dairy-free cake

Egg-free, dairy-free cake #2

Gluten-free, dairy-free (not egg-free) cake #3

Guests getting seated for tea party

Teacup and "Tea bag"goody bags inside

The guest of honor in her birthday hat and dress

A backdrop, "photo booth"spot

Lollipop flower picture frame

I loved planning and throwing parties for my kids. Too bad, it only happens once year (twice..but you know what I mean). This party was so fun, I'm sure we'll have to do it again soon as a playdate!