did you ever....

[RainbowSprinkles]

.....throw a tea party for kids?

 

i'm thinking of doing this for my dd's 8th birthday, coming up in february. i need some ideas on a party craft and a some games. how should i decorate? i would really appreciate some help with this. :)

[Vida Winter]

I did this years ago - we made garland "crowns" out of silk flowers and sparkly craft wire, with ribbons hanging down the back. If you do some prep work beforehand (any wire cutting that is required) the craft goes fairly quickly and it's something the girls can take home.

 

For decorations I bought spring flowers at Costco or Sams Club and made arrangements throughout the house, and we had crepe paper streamers, party plates, etc. It was very pretty.

[Hen]

not exactly a tea, but I did a girly-type party for my dd, we painted rocks for a craft, they came out nice, they were river-rocks, maybe paper-weight size.

 

here's a link of the photos,

 

Amie's b-day party

[astrid]

I did this for my dd's 7th birthday party. For a craft, we decorated tea trays. I bought some wooden trays (maybe 9"x12"?) at Michael's and then I painted them white beforehand. I cut out lots of little flowers, teapots, teacups, fairies, etc. out of wrapping paper and evenly distributed the cutouts among seven ziploc bags. Then each girl had a white tray, a baggie of cutout shapes, a foam brush and a plastic plate of Mod Podge. They painted the bottom of the trays with Mod Podge, arranged the cutouts the way they wanted them, and then Mod Podged over them. They were basically dry by the time the party was over and they really came out great. Dd still uses hers. It wasn't very messy although it did involve a bit of prep work.

 

We have a large collection of antique teacups and saucers and I allowed each child to choose which teacup and saucer she'd like for her pink lemonade. I baked a cake in the shape of a teapot. Never did it before, and I"m not big into decorating cakes, but I winged it and it came out cute. I baked pound cake batter in two bigger Pyrex bowls, with a bit of the batter in a small sauce dish to be used for the teapot lid. After it cooled I sort of "glued" the flat tops together with frosting to make a ball. I guess they sell a pan for a ball shape, but I didn't have it, so I just improvised. Then I trimmed the smallest bowl shape and sort of set it on top for the lid. I cut the bottom off of the bottom bowl so it would sit flat, and then made four spout and handle shapes out of sugar cookie dough. I used a cardboard template I drew, and left "tabs" about two inches long at the end of the spout that comes out of the teapot so that I could insert them into the blow cake. Same idea with the handle pieces, except I left tabs at both ends so that I could sink both ends of the handle into the cake. IWhen they cooled, I sandwiched all four spout shapes together and two of the handle shapes together so they'd be a bit thicker. I somehow got it all stuck together so that it resembled a teapot, frosted it in pastel colors and served it on a tea tray and it really looked cute.

 

After cake and lemonade, the girls jumped rope in the driveway (long rope, a "twirler" on each end, not sure if there's a certain name for that?) played hopscotch (I pre-drew the pattern on the driveway) and rolled hoops.

 

It was one of her best birthday parties EVER. And believe me, I'm NOT a birthday -party person, so if I could do it, YOU can definitely do it!

Have fun! Take lots of photos!

 

astrid

[MeanestMomInMidwest]

I did this for my dd's 7th birthday party. For a craft, we decorated tea trays. I bought some wooden trays (maybe 9"x12"?) at Michael's and then I painted them white beforehand. I cut out lots of little flowers, teapots, teacups, fairies, etc. out of wrapping paper and evenly distributed the cutouts among seven ziploc bags. Then each girl had a white tray, a baggie of cutout shapes, a foam brush and a plastic plate of Mod Podge. They painted the bottom of the trays with Mod Podge, arranged the cutouts the way they wanted them, and then Mod Podged over them. They were basically dry by the time the party was over and they really came out great. Dd still uses hers. It wasn't very messy although it did involve a bit of prep work.

 

We have a large collection of antique teacups and saucers and I allowed each child to choose which teacup and saucer she'd like for her pink lemonade. I baked a cake in the shape of a teapot. Never did it before, and I"m not big into decorating cakes, but I winged it and it came out cute. I baked pound cake batter in two bigger Pyrex bowls, with a bit of the batter in a small sauce dish to be used for the teapot lid. After it cooled I sort of "glued" the flat tops together with frosting to make a ball. I guess they sell a pan for a ball shape, but I didn't have it, so I just improvised. Then I trimmed the smallest bowl shape and sort of set it on top for the lid. I cut the bottom off of the bottom bowl so it would sit flat, and then made four spout and handle shapes out of sugar cookie dough. I used a cardboard template I drew, and left "tabs" about two inches long at the end of the spout that comes out of the teapot so that I could insert them into the blow cake. Same idea with the handle pieces, except I left tabs at both ends so that I could sink both ends of the handle into the cake. IWhen they cooled, I sandwiched all four spout shapes together and two of the handle shapes together so they'd be a bit thicker. I somehow got it all stuck together so that it resembled a teapot, frosted it in pastel colors and served it on a tea tray and it really looked cute.

 

After cake and lemonade, the girls jumped rope in the driveway (long rope, a "twirler" on each end, not sure if there's a certain name for that?) played hopscotch (I pre-drew the pattern on the driveway) and rolled hoops.

 

It was one of her best birthday parties EVER. And believe me, I'm NOT a birthday -party person, so if I could do it, YOU can definitely do it!

Have fun! Take lots of photos!

 

astrid

 

This sounds so cool.....I (almost) wish I could pull this off for my dd's 6th birthday coming up this spring.

 

DD did attend a teaparty birthday last year. I don't know how it was decorated, but for a party favor she got a teacup that she had painted with pastel colors. She loved it (the cup and the party). They ate tiny sandwiches and tiny cookies, according to her. I was working so dh just dropped her off at her friend's for the party and picked her up later. I SO admire the mom for putting up with ten 5 year old girls.

[RainbowSprinkles]

I did this years ago - we made garland "crowns" out of silk flowers and sparkly craft wire, with ribbons hanging down the back. If you do some prep work beforehand (any wire cutting that is required) the craft goes fairly quickly and it's something the girls can take home.

 

For decorations I bought spring flowers at Costco or Sams Club and made arrangements throughout the house, and we had crepe paper streamers, party plates, etc. It was very pretty.

 

Great idea to make a garland crown, although it does remind me more of a fairy kind of theme. I'm definitely doing flowers :)

[RainbowSprinkles]

I did this for my dd's 7th birthday party. For a craft, we decorated tea trays. I bought some wooden trays (maybe 9"x12"?) at Michael's and then I painted them white beforehand. I cut out lots of little flowers, teapots, teacups, fairies, etc. out of wrapping paper and evenly distributed the cutouts among seven ziploc bags. Then each girl had a white tray, a baggie of cutout shapes, a foam brush and a plastic plate of Mod Podge. They painted the bottom of the trays with Mod Podge, arranged the cutouts the way they wanted them, and then Mod Podged over them. They were basically dry by the time the party was over and they really came out great. Dd still uses hers. It wasn't very messy although it did involve a bit of prep work.

 

We have a large collection of antique teacups and saucers and I allowed each child to choose which teacup and saucer she'd like for her pink lemonade. I baked a cake in the shape of a teapot. Never did it before, and I"m not big into decorating cakes, but I winged it and it came out cute. I baked pound cake batter in two bigger Pyrex bowls, with a bit of the batter in a small sauce dish to be used for the teapot lid. After it cooled I sort of "glued" the flat tops together with frosting to make a ball. I guess they sell a pan for a ball shape, but I didn't have it, so I just improvised. Then I trimmed the smallest bowl shape and sort of set it on top for the lid. I cut the bottom off of the bottom bowl so it would sit flat, and then made four spout and handle shapes out of sugar cookie dough. I used a cardboard template I drew, and left "tabs" about two inches long at the end of the spout that comes out of the teapot so that I could insert them into the blow cake. Same idea with the handle pieces, except I left tabs at both ends so that I could sink both ends of the handle into the cake. IWhen they cooled, I sandwiched all four spout shapes together and two of the handle shapes together so they'd be a bit thicker. I somehow got it all stuck together so that it resembled a teapot, frosted it in pastel colors and served it on a tea tray and it really looked cute.

 

After cake and lemonade, the girls jumped rope in the driveway (long rope, a "twirler" on each end, not sure if there's a certain name for that?) played hopscotch (I pre-drew the pattern on the driveway) and rolled hoops.

 

It was one of her best birthday parties EVER. And believe me, I'm NOT a birthday -party person, so if I could do it, YOU can definitely do it!

Have fun! Take lots of photos!

 

astrid

 

The tray sounds great, but I'm thinking something a little simpler and less preparation. I'm planning on going to our thrift store on Monday to try to find some teacups and and saucer and a teapot. I'm going to try to find some hats and gloves and pearl necklaces for dress up too.

[RainbowSprinkles]

Thanks everyone for your responses :)

[HSMom2One]

I gave my daughter a full fledged tea party for her 8th birthday. We used china and had fresh flowers on the table, finger sandwiches, scones and the whole nine yards. Girls were required to wear dresses (hats and gloves optional). They all LOVED it!

 

The girls played dress up, musical chairs, and some other parlor style games. I don't think we had a craft, but one that would go with this more victorian style tea party would be to string beads for necklaces or make little nosegay bouquets.

 

Blessings,

Lucinda

[myfunnybunch]

Yes, and it was a blast. Actually we had three or four, varying from 3 to ten guests. Not just for birthdays, a couple were just for fun. Now she's "too old" for tea parties. Boo-hoo!

 

Treats:

~flower-shaped bread-and-butter sandwiches and star cucumber-and-cream cheese sandwiches

~strawberries with whipped cream

~cupcakes frosted in pastel colors with flower sprinkles

~choice of herbal fruit or mint tea or hot chocolate

 

Craft: Beading bracelets and necklaces

 

Game:

~A conversation game. Each girl had a question card under her tea cup. Questions like favorite colors, what games do you like to play, where would you like to travel, do you have pets? Each girl would read her question, then they would go around the table to answer.

~Hide and seek with a doll. Each girl took a turn to hide a doll. The other girls would look for it.

 

Party favor: A tea cup (I found several at a garage sale) and some herbal tea.

 

Cat

[Closeacademy]

We did a Samantha style formal tea party. All the guests wore their best--boys in suits/church clothes and girls in fancy dresses.

 

We had a very fancy cake. I brought out the silver and borrowed china tea cups. I made tea sandwiches (cucumber, pb&J) cut into small fancy shapes. We made necklaces and they played with my dd's toys and baby bunnies.:001_smile:

[ConnieB]

We did a tea party when my now-teenager was 5. It was a wonderful time! Some of the things I remember doing:

 

I picked up floppy hats at the dollar store and lots of fake flowers....the craft was to glue the flowers around that big wide floppy hat. We then wore our creations the rest of the party. I do recall that the glue didn't quite hold/dry and we had lots of flowers falling off.....but we'd just glue it back on. In retrospect, think I'd use hot glue and have each child just telling me where to put it....then we wouldn't have the falling off problem.

 

We did dress up as well....we already had a ton of old prom type dresses from cousins etc, but I stopped by the thrift store and picked up enough so that there were 2 or 3 for each child to choose from. High heels, dresses, boas.....I have some of the most adorable photos of these little ones in their grown up attire and those hats we made.

 

Also at the thrift store we picked up a bunch of teacups and saucers...again enough so that each child could choose and no one got the "last" one. We served pink lemonade in it. The girls got to take these home as party favors, and I know several of the girls have kept them all these years. These were "real" teacups so that excited the girls to get to use and taking them home elicited squeals of delight. It also saved my worrying over them using my good tea set! I don't know what the prices are like today, but back then it was 25 to 50 cents for the cup/saucer so it was very cheap to get a ton of them in all different designs so everyone could choose....and the choosing took a lot of time as everyone had to admire and debate each offering. It was really adorable to watch these 4-6 year olds check out the cups. The leftovers were used for Christmas presents to all our female friends by putting a small cloth bag of loose tea in it and mailing it to them with a poem about even though we couldn't be together for a tea party we could pretend to share a cup of tea together. I seem to recall finding the poem online or maybe from an online friend. Grandmas, aunts and honorary grandmas/aunts loved the idea of a specific day and time that we'd "all have tea together". Lovely memories done long distance.

 

We too made a teapot cake....used a Pyrex bowl to shape the main pot and marzipan to make the spout and handle. I won't say it would win any cake decorating contests but the birthday girl was very proud of her creation and her guests ooohed and aaahed. I'm sure there are now cake pans to make this easier and probably many different instructions online if you don't want to use a pan.

 

We had tea sandwiches with the crusts cut off and cut into different shapes....some were simply triangles but some we used cookie cutters to make fun shapes. Siblings got the scraps as their lunch in another part of the house on party day, lol. We made mostly PB&J but I recall having some tuna and chicken salad ones as well...and maybe something else, but I can't remember what anymore.

 

There are quite a few books available about having tea parties (both for kids and for adults)....you might check your library as they may have even more ideas.

 

The main event was really the dressup.....throw girly girls and adult dresses together and you don't really need anything else, lol. The food and cake were definitely secondary to all the pretending that was going on.

 

Have a wonderful birthday party! Some days I really miss those simple times......hmmm, wonder how my teen would feel about a tea party with mom and siblings?

[laughing lioness]

My dd has done this several times. She's done many on her own both with her siblings and with friends. Even her brothers will get dressed up to sit down to a tea (cause she cooks :001_smile:) She's also taught a couple of Protocol classes using the book "Protocol Matters" and then hosted a formal tea at the end. One semester one of the mom's rented a historical building for the tea, complete with tour and history lesson, and her photographer dh took gorgeous pics of the kids that he gave them copies of.

 

We always use real china and silver.

Quality tea with all the extras (sugar, cream and lemon)

nice tea sandwhiches, food, cakes, etc.

All of the kids dress-up

Entertainment- taking pictures, conversation

[Ellie]

be sure to serve your tea properly: teapot, not hot water and tea bags; lump sugar (you might have to do a little searching for that!) because it's fun to say "One lump or two?"; milk, not lemon, for the tea. And have your dd, as the hostess, practice pouring and serving the little finger foods to her guests ahead of time. :-)