Tea for you, tea for me, won’t you please come for tea?

The last week has been kind of crazy for me, getting ready for the girls 5th birthday party. It was our first, non-family party with kids invited and I think I went a wee bit overboard. Now why can’t I have this kind of turnout for my stamping classes??? I think we had about 24 total darlings! Next year, definitely fewer kids! All the little girls looked so sweet though, all dressed up in their princess outfits and nice party dresses, it was totally worth all the work.

Just our luck, that San Diego decided to have a record heat wave this week though, so temps were close to 105 today. Our “garden” tea party had to be moved inside, and I was really hoping I had enough to keep the girls entertained! Especially, with the trampoline and swings now out of commission due to heat.

The girls played a pass the sugar cube game with spoons around the table and a stack the sugar cubes into the tallest tower game. Then we had tea (strawberry lemonade) and sandwiches (cucumber, raisin nut and PB&J, of course!) I had been hitting all the thrift stores and had china tea pots and plates and saucers, all mismatched, but that way it didn’t matter if anything broke! The girls did great..no spills and no breaks. Even the two year old table did great! I had hit paydirt at one thrift store and got 50% off everything, so a 30 piece set of china was $10! One of the teapots was $2.79 and everything else was way less, so I felt like I was being pretty thrifty!

Here is the invitation I made for the party:

and here is the (tea bag shaped) pullout with the actual information for the party:

Here are the decorations:

Here is the cake which I thought was kind of a mess but you get the idea. It was going to be $250 at the bakery, so here's the Deidre googled teapot cakes on the internet version:

Forgive the crappy vines, I am a much better stamper than I am cake decorator!

Here’s Joel doing his best Prince Charming impersonation, or Captain Stubing….you pick:

I have to say I was proud of my man fitting in this tux that we got married in, not sure if my wedding dress would still fit or not..probably not!!

And of course the most important part of the party (according to every 5 year old????) The goodie bags!!!

Folded up to look like a tea bag of course! These bags caused quite a bit of consternation on Matty’s part as she wanted one so badly and I did not have enough for them to have one…uhm isn’t that pile of presents enough, Matty? Matilda also cracked me up with her 6 wardrobe changes throughout the afternoon, starting in a tutu with an "I love my mom" tshirt and ending with a cheerleading skirt and back to the "I love my Mom" tshirt. You would have thought she was hosting the Oscars, as many times as that girl changed!

Needless to say I am resting with my feet up and enjoying all my memories of the day! I hope all the little girls had a great time today which is the most important part. I know my two did, and they went right to sleep tonight, they were so tired! My mental notes for next time to improve are:

1) Less Kids, I am thinking about 12 would be good.

2) Get a picture of the family together before the party starts, uhm yeah, totally did not get this!

3) Get a picture of the birthday girls together on the big day, again doh!

4) Take a picture of the place setting...I didn't hand tie all those napkins for nothing!

5) Have it at Gyminny Kids! Ha! Just joking, I really love doing this stuff!

Ciao for now…….Deidre