She chose an enclosed party cabin in a state park. The cabin came with long picnic tables that were perfect as we used one for the tea party and a second one for the paint party set up. The third table was set up with the food and drinks. Garlands, Chinese lanterns, and large paper balls were hung from the open beam ceiling. I think the girls liked that it made the place feel so girly and fun.
The tea table looked fantastic with a white lacy table cloth and a lace edged burlap runner. In this picture the girls are at the painting table creating spring pictures of flowers. I neglected to capture of them with the finished paintings. [sad face] However, they loved the activity!
The girls were excited to have a hat, necklace and jeweled ring along with some precious paper tea cups and saucers at their seats.
DIL found these adorable flowers for the centerpieces at the Dollar Store. It’s bright so you can’t tell in the picture, but the flower center has a blinking led light. At the end of the party each girl was allowed to take one home along with the jewelry, hats, bubbles and their paintings.
Those fun little spoons had different questions the girls enjoyed answering during tea.
Dipped strawberries are always a favorite treat and they are so easy to do. The secret is slowly melting the candy melts in the microwave (30 seconds at a time and stirring). I fill a one cup glass measure with the candy melts because small batches work best. When the candy melts are liquid, dip a cleaned strawberry in using a spoon then place it on parchment paper to harden. If you add sprinkles, you need to do that before the candy hardens. The striping effect is made with more candy melts using a spoon to drizzle quickly across the strawberries. Pace a single strawberry in each medium size paper for serving. Don’t you wish you had one to bite into right now? They are SO good!
The tea cookies take me a bit longer to make. First I made a roll out sugar cookie dough and used some cup and tea kettle cutters I ordered from Amazon. I’m a beginner at making and using Royal flow icing. These are only the second time I’ve done it – so take note – YOU can do it too! I used a common Royal icing recipe that calls for powdered meringue. The part that took me longest to learn was getting the consistency of the icing right. The icing you use to outline the design needs to be firmer (but soft enough to squeeze through a piping tube) so it works like a dam and hold the flow icing in the shape. A lot like coloring only with icing. Allow a little time to dry before using the fill color which is almost runny (think pancake batter). My consistency was a little too stiff so I ended up using a new paint brush dipped in water to help the Tiffany Blue icing fill the areas. I let that icing dry a bit before using some different colors (buttercream recipe) to pipe on some little flowers and leaves.
I don’t know if you can tell but the display stand is two levels. The bottom is a wood board painted white that hubs made for me as a cupcake stand. There is a 4 inch tall acrylic X separating the levels and an acrylic square for the second tray. Hubs is really clever and pretty handy at making display stands for me. [smiling gratefully] Maybe I’ll put together a tutorial on how he made it soon.
This was such a fun party, I hope you are inspired to host one yourself whether it’s for little girls or grown up girls. Below provided sources for some of the items we used through Amazon for your convenience and budgeting idea. Most of what we used came from either Amazon, Dollar Store or Hobby Lobby. Just click the picture to see pricing.
