All American Tea Party

I let the kids have a "friend party" for their birthday every other year and this is an on-year! I love letting them get their creative juices flowing while they plan out the details of the party and then helping them put it all together. Hallie loves her Felicity doll and has gotten a lot of fun American-Girl Doll stuff from her Grandma this year so she wanted to have an American Girl Doll Tea Party. The guest list started with a few close friends and quickly spun out of control to almost 20 girls!! Only 14 (+2 little brothers) ended up being able to come which was just perfect. Hallie even got on the computer with me and I let her design the invitation, here is the finished product:

When the girls first arrived they sat down and made tea-party food for their dolls and stuffed animals out of play-dough.



Then they (Kyle, Trisha & the girls) went out back to play some old-fashioned games (pillow-case races, three-legged races, ring toss, hula hoop etc.) while we (Mom, Isabel & I) baked their doll food to harden it and set the table for the tea party. We set out our "fine china" with a little menu and place card on each plate, and a little plate at each spot with their dolls food on it. We served scones, little sandwiches, cookies, cupcakes and ice cream. I found the menu online here. Here is the version I came up with (x3 for printing): I simplified everything, added Hallie's All-American Cup Cakes to the menu, exchanged crystal and china for paper and plastic and it all turned out great. It was really cute and fun and I think the girls enjoyed it. After they ate Hallie opened presents and then the girls made shoe-lace jewelry for their dolls. They each got a colorful shoe lace and got to string beads on it to make a belt, necklace, headband, or whatever for their dolls.

We got all that done in just two hours--a feat I definitely couldn't have pulled off without the help of my Mom, Trisha & Kyle. It was a fun way to continue Hallie's month-long birthday celebration. We had her B-Day on 4th weekend, the party on the 20th, and we still have her baptism coming up on August 7th. Party on Hallie!!