9378

Teddy Bear & Heart 4yr - Tea Bag Sachets

August 2004

Kim in Los Alamos, NM USA

Special Mention

Teddy Bear & Heart Tea Party 4 year old 

INVITATIONS: I bought tea party invitations and decorations on-line. The invitations had a tea party pattern with heart cookies on it.  I included a little note to encourage the guest to wear their finest clothes. I also let them know I had hired 2 waiters, older brother and friend, to take care of them. We only invited 3 girls to the party. I wanted to keep the numbers small and personal. My daughter does not like crowds so I did not want her to be overwhelmed. 

PREPARATION: I made sure to test all the crafts ahead of time to ensure I was not missing something critical. I baked the cake using the round cake pan commonly used for sports ball cakes. The left over batter was enough to make 8 cupcakes for the tea cups. I trimmed the bottom of one cake to put on top of the other cake. This looked like the top of the kettle. I also used Marzipan with blue food coloring and mixed it enough to get a swirl pattern throughout the paste. I then formed a knob for the top of the kettle, the teapot handle and the spout. I let them harden over night. I also cut out some hearts to add to the tea kettle for decoration. 

I baked the cupcakes and iced the sides (not the top). I then let it sit in the refrigerator overnight so that the cupcakes would be very cold. I poured Magic Shell caramel on the top and put them pack in the refrigerator to harden. I then attached a cut gummy ring to the side of the cupcake to look like a handle. I place the cupcake on a real tea saucer. They came out looking great. The pigs in a blanket were made out of little smokies and crescent rolls cut into strips. I wrapped the dough around the sausage in a spiral. I cooked the pigs in the blanket about 2 hours before the party and just kept them warm. 

DECORATIONS: The table was covered with a nice table cloth. The centerpiece was fresh flowers, my daughters favorite heart shaped music box, a candle decoupage that she made with a baby food jar and tissue paper and little pink foam hearts. Each place setting had a plate, doilies and a real tea cup from China. Between each place setting I placed artificial flowers commonly thrown in weddings. They added a nice delicate touch to the decorations. In the dining room, I also displayed all the tea sets I owned.

Each place setting had a name plate for each child and  a picture of the child. I just printed this out on our ink jet printer, but the quality was great. The guests loved seeing their picture and it was easy for them to find their seat. The last item placed on the table was the menu. I typed all the items on the menu and used free clip art of tea sets as a border. 

MENU: My son and his friend, age 6, were the official servers of the tea party. They wore white collared shirts and kaki pants. They did such a nice job taking care of the ladies. They started off serving, pigs in the blanket, veggies with dip, heart shaped finger sandwiches, heart shaped cheese and crackers. The pigs in a blanket were the favorite menu choice. The drinks that were offered were raspberry tea, pink lemonade and water. They loved drinking out of the tiny tea cups. After they finished eating and drinking, we then cleared the table and passed out cupcakes that looked like real cups of tea. We then sang happy birthday and blew out the candles on the tea kettle cake. Each child ate their own tea cup cupcake. We then washed up and played games for the rest of the party.

ACTIVITIES: I set up our garden love seat to take picture of the ladies dressed in their prettiest of dresses. We spent about 10 minutes just posing for the camera. I took individual photos as well as group shots. They loved posing for the camera. We took pictures before we did anything messy. As the ladies arrived, they started to work on their crafts. I had a card table set up in the living room without chairs. Each guest had a placemat that had activities on the back. The first craft was to decorate a tiara for their teddy bear. I bought a kit from the party store. All they had to do was glue jewels onto the tiara. We did this first so that the glue would have time to dry.

They then worked on tea bag sachets. This was a very easy activity for the young guest to complete. Each guest was given a pink sachet normally used at weddings. They took a tea bag and put it in the sachet. They then took a mulberry potpourri mix and began stuffing the sachet with the mix. When they were done, they pulled on the string and tied it up. I also had doilies to color and pink paper to make paper fans. After the official tea party and birthday cake eating, we sang the long version of Iæm a little tea pot. We also read a Tea Party book. I always had pretty music playing quietly in the background. We were going to do a tea bag toss into a pretty bowl, but we ran out of time.

PARTING GIFTS: The guests were given a brown bag filled with all their crafts, a real miniature tea set with Teddy Bears on it, a tea cup shaped note pad, bracelet and ring, their menu and name plate. I stapled a gold ribbon to a photo of the guest and typed a note ôA Tea Bag for <name>ö. Right before they left, I rolled up the bag and stapled it shut. The end product looked like a giant tea bag party favor. 

This was such a fun experience for the children. I made sure to pick non staining crafts. We worked on using our manners and being calm and patient. The end result was a party to remember. My daughter feels all grown up now.

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