Princess Tea Party -3yr- Tea Cup Invite

Princess Tea Party  -  My three year old has been fascinated by princesses ever since she saw The Princess Diaries and I had always wanted to have a tea party so I thought combining the two for her fourth birthday would be a terrific idea.  

First we prepared our invitations.  I borrowed the wording from another tea party idea here on this site, added clip art from the internet, and printed it on paper that looks like a scroll (from Walmart).   The invitations had a clip art tiara at the top and then read:   Hear ye, hear ye!   All Princesses of the land are invited to a special tea party in honor of Princess Callahan's 4th birthday.   Then there was a clip art picture of a tea cup and saucer.  

Next came:   Please come join Princess Callahan for tea!   We'll have sugar & spice and everything nice,   There will be food galore & apple tea with ice.  A good time will await for those special princesses on this special date. (Sunday, December 8th)   Two in the afternoon is the time, so please be here,  We'll have lots to do and plenty of birthday cheer!   #### Elm Street in the Castle (Playhouse).   Then at the bottom of the page there was a clip art picture of a castle.   All of the wording was centered and printed in Anglican font.   After printing out the invitations, we rolled them up like a scroll and tied them with pink curling ribbons.   We could do this since we hand delivered the invitations.     

When the princesses arrived for the party, we met them at the door and commented on how nice they looked except that we must have forgotten to tell them that the party was only for princesses and we needed to make them look a little more like a princess.   Then my oldest daughter and one of her friends put eye shadow, mascara, blush, and lipstick on the girls and painted their nails and gave them stick on earrings.   I made purple lace skirts for each of them ($2 a yard at Walmart; I cut the fabric in half lengthwise and just sewed a cylinder and added a casing to the top; since the bottom was finished it didn’t need a hem; very quick and easy and looked great!).   I made 7 skirts from 7 1/2  yards of material and had enough left to cut scarves for each girl (I cut them about 7 wide from one end of the fabric to the other so the ends were finished).  

I also made tiaras for them from wired star garland and tulle (I made 3 circles of the garland and wired it together, then took a strip of tulle and kind of braided it in and out between the wires, then tied curling ribbon (pink, silver, and white) in a slip knot to the back and tacked it down with hot glue so it wouldn’t slip loose).   I had the girls put all of this on and then took them to the Queen’s Treasure Chest to pick out some jewelry (We have a wooden trunk that says Jose Quervo on it; I’ve no idea where it originally came from but I lined the inside with purple felt and added a crown to the underside of the lid and filled it with Mardi Gras beads, beaded bracelets, rings, and some beads I made by buying gold and silver bead strands meant for a Christmas tree, cutting them into 24 lengths and twisting the beads so they snapped together and formed a circle.  

After each one had her ensemble together we took pictures of them.   Meanwhile I had coloring sheets I printed from the internet of Disney princesses and other princesses (I found them by doing a search) and crayons for the girls who were waiting their turn to be beautified or for those who were already through.  After all of the girls were through we proceeded to have ‘tea.’  

The party was actually in our daughters’ playhouse and we decorated it with pink and white streamers, pink and white balloons, and clear Christmas lights.   I bought a small tea set at the Dollar General Store (white with pink roses on them) and a regular sized silverplated tea serving set at Fred’s. I set out the china tea cups, saucers, and plates.   On the plates I put a paper napkin. I bought small paper napkins at Walmart; I believe they were probably meant for a wedding shower but they matched my tea set just fine!   I cut the napkins in half and fan-folded them, then folded them in half, fanned them out and tied them at the bottom with satin ribbon.  (I also bought the small paper plates to use later for the cake).   I used a child sized table and chairs and covered the table with a pink table cloth with a white cutwork table cloth over it (Yes, it was my good table cloth, but I knew I could bleach it!).  

For a centerpiece I found a pink ceramic castle at a thrift store (pure luck!) and I set a vase of flowers on it.   For ‘tea’ we served apple juice in the silver tea pitcher (My daughter and her friend kept busy refilling the cups as they were only good for a sip!), mini Ritz crackers with peanut butter, mini Ritz crackers with cheese, slices of ham and cheese rolled up and sliced into  rolls with a frilly toothpick stuck in each roll, and mini chocolate chip cookies.   These were all served from small crystal serving dishes I had picked up at garage sales.  

In lieu of a birthday cake we made tea cups and tea pots from cupcakes. 

For the goodie bags I used some cellophane bags from the Dollar Tree that had pink hearts and white daisies on them.   For each one I printed a tag with a clip art tiara on it and then the child’s name (Princess Cassidy, Princess Allison, etc.).   I punched a hole in each tag and after filling the goodie bags I attached the tag to the wire used to close them with.  The goodie bags were filled with extra Mardi Gras beads, bracelets, and rings, hair elastics that said Princess on them, stick-on earrings, stickers, a book entitled Fairy Princesses that came with 20 tattoos, and candy, plus each child got to take home her coloring sheets, skirt, scarf, tiara, and whatever jewelry she had chosen from the Queen’s Treasure Chest.  

After the party we sent thank you notes.   I printed 4 different pictures of each girl and cut them out and used rubber cement to glue them on the front of a piece of cardstock and inside I wrote: from one princess to another.   Thanks for coming to the castle.   We had a royal good time.   Thank you ever so much for _________ and had my daughter sign each one.