Friday, March 20, 2015

DIY Birthday Tea Party


My daughter, who just turned 6, requested a tea party birthday this year with the girls in her class. I've never attempted a party at home before, but it seemed like the best location, given the theme. We decided all this about three months in advance of the party (she pretty much started focusing on her birthday immediately after Christmas was over), so I had plenty of time to plan. And, as it turned out, I needed all of that time!

The first thing I did was buy a stack of printed cardstock called the Haute Pink Collection from Jo-Ann's. Here's the same thing on Amazon. I did so many things with that stack of cardstock. First, I made teapot invitations. The template and instructions can be found here.


The next thing I did was make pennant banners using the same cardstock and some ribbon. Here's the template for that. (Add a thin flap on the top of the template so that you could fold it over the ribbon.)


The cardstock was also used to make placecards.


I threw in some fresh flowers in vases and tissue balls, and the house was party-ready.


The party was scheduled to run for an hour and a half. The first half hour would be devoted to crafts. The second would be eating. And the third would be dancing. I decided on two crafts for the girls to do. One was a foam teapot treat holder from Oriental Trading. The other was stringing pearl necklaces; I also got the pearls from Oriental Trading.

The teapot treat holder was a hit. The girls liked putting it together, and it was relatively easy to do. I had the adults put on a drop of superglue for the knob handle so that it would dry quickly. Sticking on the spout and handle was also slightly tricky and required some adult intervention, but for the most part the girls were able to do it themselves. I added a cup of markers to the worktable so that the girls could decorate the finished teapots as well.


The beads were not such a good idea. I'd prepared lengths of string with clasps, and counted out the proper number of beads into Dixie cups for each participant, but it was difficult for some of the girls to string the beads. Some did better than others. In the end, we had to abandon that project because we ran out of time, and my husband had to string together the final few necklaces for the stragglers. The girls were happy with the finished product, though, and many wore their necklaces during the party.

For the food, I'd prepared three kinds of sandwiches (PB&J, turkey and cheese, and hummus), fruit salad, and three kinds of dessert (mini cupcakes, cookies, and macarons). The thing that really made the food fun was the serving tower I bought from Target, only $20. It was used to present the sandwiches first, and then the desserts. The cupcakes and cookies were homemade. The macarons came frozen from Trader Joe's ($5 for a dozen) - for me, DIY only goes so far.


And of course there was pink lemonade in a fancy pitcher ($13 from Target).


As a treat, I also let the girls drink from real china teacups and eat off real china plates (which were just the saucers that came with the teacups). I bought 12 matching teacups and saucers from English Tea Store for only $50. After the meal was over, I washed the teacups and saucers, wrapped them in bubble wrap, and put them in loot bags as a parting gift.


After eating, the girls decorated their own cupcakes. I'd prepared cupcake boxes so that they could take their masterpieces home in the loot bags as well. For the loot bags, I just attached onto plain white bags heart cutouts made from - you guessed it - the cardstock. That stack of cardstock is my new best friend. I'm making a shower curtain out of it next.


Then it was time for dancing. After all my preparation, I think it was the dancing (which required almost no preparation) that the girls loved best. They just jumped around to Kidz Bop for half and hour and worked off all that sugar. Everyone went home exuberant.


To be honest, it was a lot of work! But I think everyone had a good time, and the preparation was actually a lot of fun, too.

Thursday, March 19, 2015

I'm Cheating on My Own Blog


I started guest blogging at Wee Westchester recently, and it's been really fun. Here's a collection of my latest posts.

Celebrating Dr. Seuss's Birthday With Some Whimsical Treats
Green eggs and ham and other goodies inspired by our fave author.


Chocolatiers in Training
Scarsdale's Chocolate Works is the perfect setting for a fun and yummy playdate.


Snow Day Craft: For the Birds
It's National Bird Feeding Month. Three fun projects to keep little hands as busy as the birds.


One Spectacular Slurp
We found the best ramen in Westchester.



Winter Blues? Cure It With Baby Farm Animals!


Nothing says spring like baby farm animals. We found out there were some new lambs at Muscoot Farm in Katonah and took a trip to see them this past weekend. The temps were in the high 30s, but we bundled up, put on our rain boots to protect against the melting snow, and made the half-hour trip north.


It turned out to be a great visit. Most of the animals are indoors in their respective "houses," and we saw cows, horses, turkey, chicken, pigs, goats, and of course the sheep. There were two baby lambs, one born a week ago, and one born just that morning! 


The other animal my kids liked a lot were the pigs, which were huge. I didn't get a good picture of them (they were too big to fit into my camera frame!), but they were literally three times the size of me. I've always thought of pigs as about the size of a dog, but these pigs were more like small cows. Still cute, though.


The animals were in close proximity to one another, which was great because it was so muddy out. It was a good thing we wore rain boots; the kids were really into the puddles.


One more day until spring officially begins!