Our little-love's THIRD birthday was celebrated in October with fabulous weather and great friends. I have worried for the last three years whether or not the weather would be agreeable this time of year. We set up a tea party in the back yard and lots of fun was had by all.
The perfect lil' Alice. Cheshy was pretty darn cute too.
THE SET-UP
Nothing but the best for this party. The fanciest tea sets, linens, paper lanterns and butterflies hanging above the table.
These beauties are truly vintage. They were abandoned in a warehouse for 50 years so when I found them they were essentially brand new, still in the original packaging.
THE SIGNAGE
Signs saying *somewhere*, * there*, *this way*, and my favorite *down* {made using insulation foam, painted and then written with chalk}.
This *down* sign was Audrey's idea. We put a pile
of dirt under the point to make it look like a hole.
{very, very clever!}
SETTING THE TABLE
The birthday girl's special chair
The giant leaved and Chesh {cut off at the top}
were made out of the same material as the signs.
Linens, fine china and finger foods. I am
impressed at how well all our three-ish year old guests did
with all the glass. Not one thing got dropped, chipped, or broken.
THE FUN STUFF!
After tea, the kiddos made some Cheshire Cat cookies. The original recipe from
Family Fun was for cupcakes, which I didn't want to do since we were doing cupcakes as the main dessert. So, my good friend Christina said *just use cookies*. Brilliant, right?
It's hard to tell from the picture, but the un-dressed bunnies in the basket
are un-stuffed. We cut vests out of no-sew fleece and used strips of fabric
as bow ties. The kiddos picked out their bunnies, stuffed them and dressed them.
THE DESSERT TABLE
*Painting the Roses Red* marshmallows, cupcakes, taffee and chocolate.
These round labels were made using leftover punches from the
cupcake toppers, layered with *Eat Me* banners, placed on larger
3" circles and then topped off with some glitter glue dots.
THE CHARACTERS