Princess Tea Party

Betsy turned 6 on the 20th of October and, that being an even age, got to have a party. We decided on a Princess Tea Party at our house. Her preparations began about a month ago when she found a recipe for tea cookies in a magazine at Ruth's therapy. She politely asked the receptionist to photocopy it for her and the ideas have been flying ever since. On the day of the party we kicked out Daddy and all the boys who spent the afternoon running errands and enjoying THAT place (Chuck E. Cheese - ewwww).

When the girls arrived (they had been instructed to wear whatever makes them feel like a princess) we greeted them with bubbles and a bottle of nail polish. I painted nails while they ran around playing Princess Tag. We had a princess wand which was presented to the Princess. If a player was touched with the wand she had to freeze until a playmate tagged her free (a royal twist to an old favorite). I then brought out Cinderella's one glass slipper and instructed the girls that the other slipping was missing and they must hunt for it. After a brief romp about the yard Miriam was able to locate the missing footwear and earned herself a darling little pair of plastic heels.

From there we went inside where the girls gathered around a table and each made a necklace and a bracelet with beads of various pinkish hues.

Then it was time for the actual tea. Betsy and I had set the table with our prettiest table cloth and cloth napkins and each guest had a keepsake tea cup and one of our carefully made tea cookies. Instead of actual tea we had pitchers of pear juice and lemonade. The girls practiced passing cookies politely and using words like "Dawling" and "Maaavelous". Then Betsy opened up a pretty white box on the table which contained conversation starters. As the hostess of the party, she was responsible for keeping the conversation lively. She read off such things as "Oh dawling, how *is* your mother?" and "Isn't that Patrick just simply divine?"

I made a heart-shaped ice cream cake with pink whipped cream icing which didn't look nearly as pretty as the rest of the faire at the table but Betsy was thrilled with it. We sang Happy Birthday, ate cake, opened presents and sent our guests home bearing new little beaded purses and their little teacups and saucers. As a bonus, Kaitlyn and Abby stuck around for some time after the party and the girls got some play time with their favorite girly cousins. The whole affair was simply maaavelous!