Princess Tea Time
As I was going through our photos from the last year recently, I realized I still haven’t written about Miss Lady’s 4th annual Tea Party! It’s been about 6 months, and seeing as there is less going on around here in the middle of winter (okay, I’m still pretty busy, but I’m not processing-a-garden-harvest-busy), I thought it was high time I wrote about this year’s festivities!
The 4th annual tea party was a Tea for Princesses (and their favorite doll or stuffed animal). Miss Lady had a co-host in her cousin, Miss A. Together, the girls helped me to plan and prepare for the tea party. Miss A’s mother, Tiffany, helped prepare some of the food including some fabulous macrons, and the two of them arrived early the day of the party to help us get set up.
It was actually a lot easier to prepare for the tea party this year than in the past because we’ve accumulated most of the things needed to host the party… chairs, tables, dishes, and some decorations. And due to the whole fire fiasco, combined with the knee injury and the morning sickness, I tried to keep my tasks as simple as my overly ambitious mind would allow for. (By pacing myself over a few weeks, I was able to avoid doing all of the preparations at once, and the girls helped me to make some of our décor.)
Miss Lady and Miss A decided on our theme for the year (I didn’t include pictures of our co-hostess for reasons of privacy). It was perfect, especially considering they won’t be this young forever. Per their request, everybody would dress up like a fancy princess, and all of the girls would bring a doll or a stuffed animal to be their guest to the party. We ended up having our largest tea party to date, inviting multiple friends of the girls in addition to the usual cast of cousins, aunts, and grandmothers. If you include everybody, there were at least 30 people at the party! With the exception of some babies, this is strictly a no-boy zone (and you can see why in one of the pictures below).
One of our guests did the flower arrangements for us, and I LOVED how they turned out! They added the perfect touch to the party with their beautiful pastel colors, and they looked so sweet and dainty in their little tea cup “vases”! We found some toy horses at a thrift store and spray painted them or dressed them up as additional decorations for the table settings. Some were turned into unicorns with the help of a bit of hot glue. And the girls requested that everybody get a place card that they could mark their seats with once they arrived.
We’ve amassed a collection of tea pots the past couple of years, and this year we got to show-case them all. Even though our party took place in July, we did still serve hot tea. It’s mostly the adults who end up drinking it, but the option is available for the girls as well. And in the past few years, I added a couple of pretty cake stands to my collection. I love having these things around!
Our collection of tea pots is now up to 6! 3 are from Miss Lady’s deceased great-grandfather’s collection, two from her aunt, and the last one was a birthday gift for me 🙂 
I love my pretty cake stands! The small glass one was a wedding gift, the glass green one was a birthday gift, and I purchased the white stand several years back. 
Our unique collection of tea pots adds a little something special to these tea parties. 
A basket of fun, fruity teas and some of our supplies for eating.
Tiffany brought a “tent” along for the girls to sit under, and we stapled a bedsheet to the top of the greenhouse (that lost all of it’s plastic sheeting in a wind storm) for an additional play area. One of the guests brought henna along and drew designs on some of the girls, and another taught the girls a little song and dance. They had an absolutely fantastic time with that.
One of the adult guests teaches some of the girls a fun song and dance. 
Two princesses playing dolls in the shade. 
A few princesses relaxing in the royal tent. 
One guest decorates the hand of another with some henna. 
Two sister princesses enjoying the tree swing.
Miss Lady and Miss A saw some flower crowns on Pinterest and asked if we could have those at the party as well, so I picked up some wire, floral tape, and fake flowers, and we set up a table for making crowns once the snacking was over. We also had a little set up for the girls to be able to make a collar or necklace for their “guests.” We had little tags that they stamped with the initial of their guest’s name, and then put some fancy ribbon through for the collars. There were “pearls” and “princess rings” set out for the girls to dress up with.
Every year, we make some sort of party favor, and this year it was small paper baskets containing some macrons that Tiffany had made and a couple of muffins. The girls saw pictures of these cute little ice cream cone tea cups (we filled them with cherry vanilla mousse), and they were for the girls party “guests”. Somewhere up above, you can see the little petit fours that one guest made, and another brought fruit kabobs. In one of the pictures of the table settings, you can see raspberries with white chocolate in them that another party guest brought.
I know I said this in the summer, but thank you again, to all of the ladies for joining us and for the things you helped contribute to this special day. We’re so glad we started this tradition and have the opportunity to spend time with the special ladies in our lives! We’re looking forward to seeing everybody again in the summer! I think we may step up the level of fancy and have loose leaf tea for the adults this year. I had the opportunity to sample some of St. Fiacre’s tea, and I think there is hope for me becoming a tea drinker yet!
Love~ Danielle and Miss Lady
Did you miss our last two tea parties? I wasn’t blogging when we had our first, but there are a few pictures from that first year in one of these posts! Here is the second annual tea party, and here is the third!
