Homemade Tea Party

After attending an American Girl tea at the American Girl Store in Minneapolis, Autumn wondered if she could have a tea party for her birthday.  I love thinking of new birthday party ideas, so after we got home I went right to work!

I found these plates on sale at Hobby Lobby for 75% off!  The candle sticks I used my 40% off coupon on (went back another day to get the 2nd one).

 

 I painted the candle sticks and hot glued them onto the plates in layers.
Here is the three-tiered plate thingy with goodies on it.  (I can't believe I didn't snap a photo of it empty!)

We soon found out that Autumn's best friends, (who are sisters) would soon be moving away and wouldn't be here for her birthday...So, we threw them a little "goodbye tea" instead.  I did my best to re-create some of the delicious treats we had tried back at the American Girl Store in Minneapolis.

 

The chocolate mousse flower garden (above) was probably our favorite, along with the mini cupcakes with frosting and sprinkles.  The sandwiches were easy...just regular bagels with cream cheese and cucumber slices, little buns with deli turkey and cheese and regular ham and cheese sandwiches cut into fun shapes with a cookie cutter.  Fruit kabobs on the bottom tray to start with along with mini blueberry muffins.

 

We found plastic glasses at Hobby Lobby that matched the plates used for the tea-time tray.  They were also on clearance and made great take-home keepsakes!  We fanned our the napkins (Vanity Fair ones with little shells on them) and tied the bottom of each napkin with pale turquoise ribbon that matched the paper plates.  We then stuck a little daisy stem into each tie.

The girls brought their dolls and a good time was had by all!

 

We were so glad to be able to have Autumn's "Besties" over for one last fun day before they moved.  And now that we know a tea party can be done (with much help from my loving mom...thanks Mom!)  we will once again attempt to do it all over again for Autumn's birthday!

Until another day, have a happy vintage day!

Tea-time at the American Girl Store

One of the big things that we did on our family vacation in Minneapolis was to visit the American Girl store and to have tea time in the American Girl Bistro.  It was a wonderful experience! 

Autumn and I at the American Girl Bistro. There is even a seat for Summer the doll.

Our waitress introduced herself and explained how the meal/experience would work.  We thought it was nice that she took extra time to talk to Autumn and to learn her doll's name.
She took our drink order and they had some wonderful Lemonades and Iced Teas to choose from
(you could also get soda pop). 

While our food was being prepared, our waitress brought us each a little take home craft to work on while we waited.  This was a nice touch and made the time fly by.  Shannan even worked on one of the crafts.  He's such a good daddy because he set the whole tea-time experience up for us in the first place...made all of the reservations and everything!

Working on our little paper crafts all about Molly and Emily (our favorite characters!)

Next came the food tray with all of the lovely little goodies to eat.  All tea time guests are given the same menu of items, so there is no choosing or having to guess which ones to get...you get a sample of everything!!  You start with the bottom plate, with muffins, fruit and yogurt dip (one item for each guest).  Then you jump to the center plate where there were three different kinds of tea-time sandwiches.  Then the top plate is desserts. 



 

Desserts.  Chocolate Mousse with cookie crumbs on top inside a little plant pot (so yummy), a cupcake and a J-ello fruit.

And of course your doll gets her own special chair, tea cup and saucer. 



We had such a good time that Autumn decided that she would like to do a "Doll's Tea Party" for her birthday.  Hmmm, I think maybe I can make that happen....that's a post for another day.

Until then, happy tea time everyone!

A Snoopy Birthday

Autumn's birthday party came and went.  She had a snoopy party, and there was plenty of house cleaning, baking and decorating to do.

On of the fun little things I made for her was a Snoopy pillow from her beloved Snoopy sweatshirt.  She grew out of the shirt last year but refused to part with it.  It's been hanging in her closet ever since, taking up space.

1.  Simply cut a square from both the front and back.
2.  Place the front and back together with the good sides facing each other (because you will be turning it inside out to hide the seams. 
3.  Sew around all sides, leaving a small hole to turn the pillow right side out.
4.  Fill the pillow with batting or fluff.
5.  Sew the little hole shut.
It's as easy as that!

A squishy pillow!

 

Pin the nose on the Snoopy game.

Decorated kitchen ceiling.  She had black and white silverware, plates and cups with B&W polka dotted napkins for cake time.

Cookies for Autumn's classmates.

The local grocery store couldn't make us a Snoopy cake because of copyright laws.  So, we had them make us a plain white cake with red trim and we added a WWI Flying Ace Snoopy plush from the local Hallmark store!  She loved it AND got a cool stuffed animal!

Goody bags.  I found these great little bags for the right price at Hobby Lobby.  Printed the little Snoopy message and sticky taped them to the bags. 

 It was nice to see so many of our friends an relatives and a fun time was had by all!
Until another day!
Have a great crafting day!