Tea for 3 (years)

For her birthday, Charlie requested a pink and yellow tea party, and so it was. Made lots of pink and yellow tissue paper flowers (you know, the Mexican-style kind).

And fancy paper hats made from craft paper and decorated with ribbon and more paper flowers. I used this basic technique, except with craft paper instead of wrapping paper to make them more sturdy. I had my husband use my head as the mold, and Charlie looked really worried while we worked on this... This requires lots of repeated wrinkling up and flattening of the paper prior to shaping it to make it pliable enough. Cousin Greta is modeling a hat above, alongside the tablecloth I made from some fabric with pink and yellow balloons--Who'd'a thunk it?



For one activity, the girls did these little watercolors, created by sketching out simple drawings on watercolor paper, shading a bit with water color pencils, and then letting the girls paint with water. My sister found this activity here, and the results were really sweet. (Thanks to my sister and husband who drew most of the little portraits; yes, my husband drew those teapots.)


The favors were a set of paintings to do at home, paint brushes, little pink Easter gloves, and play tea bags I sewed from linen. After all the crafting, I didn't have a cake left in me. I bought one from Whole Foods, and friend Alicia made this cute smiling teapot on it.


And she put little pink flowers on these lemon poppy seed mini muffins I made.



It was a very happy birthday! (Although, later when asked if she liked her party, Charlie told me she wanted a round cake, not a rectangle. Maybe I'll get it right next year...)



PS These fabulous pictures were taken by my friend Erin. I never even picked up my camera for a snapshot...