Just Go Fam: Abbey's 4th birthday tea party

Abbey had her first-ever friends birthday party last Saturday. Abbey actually turned 4 at the beginning of January, but we were so busy (plus Christmas just happened), that we thought some space between her actual birthday and her party would be a good thing. And, it turned out to be a fun day.

I picked up some old Belgian and German tea sets off of craigslist last year and we have been wanting to have a fancy tea party with them for quite some time. So, that is what we did. The theme for Abbey's party was "Vintage Royal Tea Party." It was a fairly intimate party. We didn't invite a ton of friends, because we felt the intimacy of the tea party would lend it to be even more fun.

My friend, Gina, has a cookie business and made these beautiful works of art. Here is a link to her business: http://sweetblessingscookies.net/

And they taste as good as they look--amazing!

When we summoned the royal princesses to our party (sent the invitations), we asked them each to don their favorite princess gown. As the princesses arrived to the party, I snapped their photo on our swing in the front yard.

Our little princess, Abbey.

I won't post the photos of each of the girls, but I will include this one of one of Abbey's friends, because I thought her princess ensemble was very elegant.

As everyone arrived, we asked the moms to describe in detail their princesses' entire outfits by writing the descriptions down on cardstock which we provided. We had a surprise in store for the moms later.

Then, we headed outside for our first game. I told the kids that Cinderella was over at our house last week for a party. She left in a hurry though and somehow ran right out of one of her slippers. I told them that she just called me and asked if they could help find it.

They found the first one in the backyard.

Then, I told them while they were looking Cinderella called and said she actually must have lost BOTH of the shoes here. So, the girls continued on in their mission of finding the missing slippers.

Abbey was obviously not happy that Luke was holding the slipper.

There we go...retake with Abbey holding the 2nd missing slipper.

Next, we had a surprise for the moms. We took all of the cards that the moms used to describe the outfits of their princesses and had a little fashion show. The intent was to include the brother siblings who attended the party as well, but they weren't having that. That would have been fun though! Here is the video--please forgive the quality, movement and my voice.

(Drew was AWESOME that day, by the way. He served, served, served. He was the MC for the fashion show, he served the girls during their fancy tea party and he helped clean up. He's such an amazing husband and dad!)

After the fashion show, it was time to head inside for the fancy tea party. The girls were served 3 different courses after their strawberry tea was individually poured into their fancy tea cups. They were served fruit bowls, heart-shaped chocolate banana muffins, and then the gorgeous cookies (works of art) that my friend, Gina, created.

During the tea party, we had some sweet princess music (classical tunes) playing at a soft volume. Each princess was given a golden crown at her place setting to adorn her head. The golden cloth napkins were tied delicately with soft pink ribbons.


If you look beyond our princess tea party, you will notice the "knights of the square table" munching on goodies as well.

After the tea party, we headed outside for another game. We played "pass the magic wand." It is similar to musical chairs. We started out with all of the kids in a circle. They passed the wand while the music played and whoever had the wand when the music stopped was out. The circle got smaller and smaller until we had our winner.