A Mad Hatter's Tea Party

Wow..I can't believe it's Saturday already..hope you have a chance to unwind over the weekend. This is a long post, so grab a cuppa and enjoy. I hope I don't bore you too much, I know your time is precious :)

I wanted to do something special for my daughters first 'Real' party now that she has started Kindergarten. I had envisaged a wonderful Tea Party with all things girlie. She loved the idea but at the last minute decided that she wanted to invite boys as well. I had to change gears a bit but decided on the 'Mad Hatters Tea Party' that would appeal to both girls and boys...as it turned out no boy could attend :)

Here are a few shots of the decorations:
*** (remember you can click to make the image bigger :):***

We found a Teapot tea set on sale and I cut the Alice picture to size and added a bit of glitter and tad of colour.

Running with the Alice theme, we chose 1 red and 2 white roses. Of the two white roses, one was kept white, the other was half painted red as if ordered by the Queen of Hearts. We rested a red tipped paintbrush on the vase too.

Table food included heart choc-chip shortbread, candy sticks, pink heart marshmallows, heart shape fairy bread, fruit platter, pastel shaded lollies. For lunch we served mini pizza, mini hot dogs, sausage rolls and party pies.

I hung a banner made from playing cards, alternating between the cards faces (Hearts) and backs. The word 'Wonderland' was spelt out in glittered letters and simply strung on pink ribbon.

I only made a few pom poms (dress makers pattern and tissue paper). Instructions here.

I glittered a garden twig and wired on the butterflies and birds.

Made the little bird drink cup from a pink thimble and a bottle cap for the plate. The little hat consists of scrap music sheet, glitter and crepe paper.

The take-home gifts: I wanted to make something girlie and fun, but inexpensive too, for all the girls to take home. I found the pink party hats and simply added diamonte dots, a glitter initial for each child, a flower pom pom top and some fake flowers to the band. A little extra glitter and they were right to go.

I bought a bulk pack of bubble blowers, cut a piece of pretty scrap paper to cover the original band, found some pretty glitter butterfly stickers and placed in a cellophane bag.

I jazzed up the paper cups with a strip of crepe paper, ribbon, a pipe cleaner handle and card scrap added to the front (idea adapted from Jessica's post at Such Pretty Things).

Inside each child received a colourful beaded necklace, a bubble blower, a mini wand, a chunky plastic diamonte ring (the ones you find in the discount stores). And of course, you couldn't go without a lolly bag. The lollies had to be pretty as well as tasty (musk sticks, lollypops, candy necklace, pink foil covered chocolates, pink candy canes etc).

The cakes: OMG! I found the easiest and tastiest cup cake recipe (click to follow link). I cheated by using the ready-made canned icing with piping attachments by Cake Mate (available in pink, white and blue). I made a batch for each colour. I found that the recipe makes 10 large muffin sized cup cakes and one can of icing iced each batch.

For the first school day back I bought a store-made slab Rainbow cake and cut into small squares and shaped into a number 6. I used a little icing to keep each slice in place. As there are only around 20 kids in her class this was perfect.

You can't have a party without old fashioned party games.
We adapted a few to suit the theme:
* Pass the teapot (instead of pass the parcel and every child picked out a lollypop) **pictured above**
* The Mad Hatter Says (instead of Simon Says)
* Pin the tail on the Cheshire Cat
* Whats the time White Rabbit (instead of Wolf)
* Bag toss Card Man (I painted a Card Soldier on a Foam-core board. Cut out a heart shaped hole in the middle to toss a sack filled with rice through)

Each child received a winners medal (cheap plastic discount store ones) at the end of the games.

The kids had so much fun, some didn't want to leave and there were no tears!! I remember when my son invited his entire class to his kindy birthday party; the boys were fighting in the first five minutes and we lost a kid..he had climbed up our walnut tree :) Oh you gotta love boys....

Next year I am thinking of planning a sleepover Pedi-Party... it should be fun.

What has been your favourite kids party idea to date? I would love to hear about your fab-u-lous ideas :)

PS. The talented Selina Lake, acclaimed Interior Stylist and Author, is proud to announce the upcoming publication of her latest book 'Romantic Style' in September (click the name to follow the link or select from my blog list). She is offering 5 lucky people the chance to win a signed copy! To enter, send Selina a photograph that you have taken that sums up your idea of Romantic Style.