Camryn's birthday tea party

For months now, Camryn has been requesting a "tea party" birthday. Having never been to an official tea party myself, I had to do a little digging to figure out just what you do at one, besides drink tea. It turns out there is a whole sub-culture on this topic, one that relies heavily on proper etiquette, eating certain things in a certain order, and wearing giant, floppy hats.

I figured the girls wouldn't care too much about any of those things, so I went ahead and improvised. First, the girls colored and decorated their own fans (every proper lady must have a fan, right?)


After that, we took the girls and their dolls through a pretend tea party, making sure that all involved used their best manners, and said "please" and "thank you." The girls got a big kick out of this... We then realized that though we were all dressed up, we needed a few more accessories to complete our fancy look, so we added white tea gloves, and feather boas.




After our etiquette lesson, we were ready to eat! The girls sat at a pink, frilly table, and enjoyed their (caffeine free) mint tea and pink lemonade in my best tea cups. I tried to offer them some traditional (cucumber), and not-so-traditional (strawberry cream cheese, and good 'ol pbj) tea sandwiches, but none of them were too impressed. They had already seen the tower of sweets that was coming up next, and politely refused the sandwiches while eying the treats.

And so they enjoyed selecting and tasting lots of little items: mini cupcakes, strawberries, cream puffs, min-eclairs, and tiny scones. A sweet-tooth's delight!












The girls finished the afternoon with lots of lively play upstairs, and the tradition of "hiding" whenever parents decided it was time to depart. Thank you friends, for sharing Camryn's special tea party day!