I did a Princess Tea Party for my DD's last birthday (7 yrs old). I had bought all these beautiful decorations after Valentine's and it was wonderful. I held it in the formal parlor of a church around the corner. Put on a linen cloth, put rose petals down the table; each place setting had lace placemats and beautiful plates and cups. Each girl had a tiny heart-shaped metal basket with beads in which I put a small silver muffin cup that held nuts. In my experience, kids are fussy about sandwiches (mine doesn't like them), so I ordered Chick-Fil-A nugget platters with sauces and put them on a nice serving platter and put the sauce in pretty bowls. We had fresh strawberries and baby carrots with ranch dip. (I also had a small table set up with individual standing Tulip mirrors so each girl could do her make-up and put on jewelry and tiaras - I did the nail painting) It was a lot of fun!

Keep the menu simple - it's all about the frou-frou and fun. They'll love it!

I think finding a sandwich they will like is your challenge. Do they eat peanut butter? Open faced or closed faced pb and jelly or pb and banana sandwiches? I loved and still do peanut butter sandwiches dotted with rasins.
PB mixed with honey? Little ham and cheese sandwiches?

The rest of the menu will be easy. Fresh fruits and sweets!

missindia... the Princess Tea Party sounds lovely! i would love to borrow your ideas. It will be just me and the two girls, but I can still do the favors. I already have some lovely teapots, and I bet i can find some pretty frilly small plates and placemats.

sheilajoyce....thank you for your suggestions too. the little one loves strawberries....maybe a cream cheese dip for the fruit? If I make sandwiches i thought I would use a small cookie cutter to cut out the bread.

Thank you so much! I am going to run to Dollar Tree tomorrow to see what they have.

We love Strawberries Romanoff. Fresh strawberries with stems/leaves still attached. Put a dollop of sour cream and a pile of light brown sugar on each plate. Pick up the strawberry by the leaves or stem, dip in the sour cream, then into the brown sugar. YUMMY!!!! You could always dilute the sour cream with something to make it a little thinner for dipping, but it is good plain. Or you could try yogurt.

Paper top hats for the guys and paper crowns (get one from Burger King for an example) for the girls! Too fun!

Here's a cute tea party suggestion.

If you look around, some supermarkets carry thimble-sized ice cream cones (you'd probably use a cookie scoop to fill them with ice cream--really tiny). For a baby shower, we made pink chicken salad--marinated chicken breasts in raspberry walnut dressing, grilled, diced fine. We mixed the chicken with finely diced celery, quartered grapes, diced apple and mayo, and used it to fill the little ice cream cones. Put a raspberry on top of each, if you want. Pretty, pink and DELICIOUS! You could also fill the cones with egg or tuna salad

How about this--cut the crusts off cinnamon or raisin bread. Arrange thin, tart apple slices on the bread. Top with thin slices of cheddar cheese. Grill and cut diagonally into quarters. We love these. Or for a cold sandwich, spread raisin bread with cinnamon cream cheese, top with apples and another slice of bread, and cut into fancy shapes with a cookie cutter.

I'm sure you already know this--but half the fun of the party is fixing everything. Be sure to have plenty of stuff for the girls to help with--decorating, cooking, etc. Maybe take out some kids cookbooks from the library and let them choose some of the foods for the party. They'll enjoy the prep work as much as the actual party. Maybe you could get some hats for them to decorate with flowers and ribbons?

How about making some of those felt napkin rings with them? where you cut a flower shape out of one color of felt, a dogbone shape out of another color, leaves out of green. Put a hole in the middle of the flower and leaves, fold the 'dogbone' in half and push first through the leaf section, then through the flower shape--the end of the dogbone make the middle petals of the napkin ring, the loop at the back forms the ring.

Have fun!

Thank you all for the wonderful ideas! I am printing all your responses...have a few weeks to prepare. Getting very excited about this little party. I want it to be something they will remember especially since they are moving so far away. Maybe we will make the tea parties a ritual when they visit.

thanks again, love the crowns or decorated hats, food ideas too.

Jennava,

Do you have any old hats & gloves? I have a collection from the 50s and my daughter likes to put them on occasionally. Maybe you have an older friend who has hats & gloves? Even a trip to Goodwill might produce something. If you're nervous about the hats, give a squirt of Lysol and let them dry. If you make them a ritual, that will be something they will ALWAYS remember.

By the way, they make tea sets (some kind of pottery/china) that you and the girls can paint. They run about $14 for the set. I know I've seen them at craft stores. I didn't get one for my DD because she has her own china set as well as mine (intact) from the late 60s. Have you a card table? Set that up as the tea table. I have a collection of 50s tablecloths that were sized for card tables because of all the socials and card games and stuff women used to do. If you have one of those, use it. Good luck - it will be fun because YOU are doing it!

I love tea parties! Mix 1 jar of marshmallow cream with 1 package of cream cheese for an EXCELLENT fruit dip. I could eat a whole bowl of the stuff. Have fun!

Blessings,
Haley

consider a medium sized heart cookie cutter to cut your sandwiches. perhaps a little strawberry jam/jelly mixed with cream cheese to make a pink filling in white bread.

petit fours in icings of pink, white and red with little candy hearts on top. or you can do lollipop brownies and dip them in colored icing with sprinkles.

serve everything on tiered trays and don't forget the doilies!!!

scatter those little cinamon hearts and conversation hearts on the table like confetti.

you might want to pick up a few mix and match tea cups and saucers - from thrift or antique stores - that the girls can take with them as a "parting gift".

missindia has it right - hit the goodwill stores for gloves and hats - pearls, shawls, etc.

great way to create traditions and memories.

have fun!
maryanne

What wonderful ideas! I am adding the hats, gloves and to my Goodwill list for Friday. I have a nice tea set, will look for some dainty plates and doilies. I am going to look at Dollar Tree for heart cookie cutters for the sandwiches, love the cinnamon bread and the cream cheese. I think I will try the marshmallow creme and cream cheese with a little pink food color for the fruit dip. Thank you all so much for the help, my girls will love this!

June