Mad Hatters Tea Party 4yr - Drink Me Invite

Mad Hatters Tea Party. My son loves Alice in Wonderland and for his 4th birthday we had him a Madhatters Tea Party. 

The invitations were construction paper top hats with a invite on the inside.  Hats were required for all invited guests.  Refreshments were the squeezables with slips of paper that were printed with the words, "DRINK ME" attached to them with twine.  Cup cakes were decorated in the theme colors he chose, purple, hot pink, yellow, and neon green. Each cup cake had a tiny playing card attached to a toothpick and inserted into the top of the cake. 

Snacks of cheetos, chips, dip, starburst, skittles, M&M's were all place in plastic containers in those colors also. 4 tables were set up for the children. Each table had a different colored cloth with mixed colored plastic ware. The center pieces were a glued together house of cards, a pink flamingo yard decoration, a plastic bush with red flowers hotglued to it and a paint can with a red paintbrush laying beside it, and a large tophat on the partyboys table. I had napkins embossed at the party store with my child's name on them and a colorful array of the theme colors.. Also included balloons to mark the rented room where we were to be found. 

The games were simple and fun. I had teenagers help with the game sites and help the smaller children. One game was pin the grin on the Cheshire cat. I had painted on a poster board the Cheshire cat from Alice and on a separate poster drew a large smile.  Each poster was laminated and the smile was adhered with stick tack.  Mardi Gras beads were given out at this game.

Sugarcube teacup toss was next. A white plastic storage container was placed on the floor with a large piece of foam core board underneath cut into a circle to simulate the saucer. Styrofoam squares were covered with white felt to look like sugarcubes.  The child would stand a couple of feet from the cup and toss, ring pops were given at this game. 3 large cardboard boxes were painted green and red flowers painted on them  and this was called the rabbit hole.  The boxes were taped together with packaging tape( duct tape will not work!) and the kids were free to wander in and out of the rabbits hole. Several were found eating in there. 

The teenagers were dressed as characters from the story, Cheshire cat, Alice was my 16 yr old daughter, she had the costume from Halloween, we had a mock turtle, the white rabbit, the Mad Hatter and of course the Queen of Hearts. The kids came up with the costumes on their own.  I used teenagers from our community theatre, or you could always ask your church's youth group. They sang to the children songs my son had requested and played for three straight hours! The party favors included snapshots with their favorite character and in a small plastic top hat was stickers, a pack of cards, Mardi Gras beads, and a Alice in Wonderland flip book that I happened upon at the Cracker Barrel.

The best sight was watching the adults at the party,, one lady showed up in her lampshade for a hat!  I had put r.s.v.p. on the invites but only had  12 replies but somehow ended up with 24 children and about that many adults.  So a rental activity center was a good place to hold the party.  It took 30 min to set up and 30min. to clean up.. well worth the preparation time and a memorable party.