Emily's First Tea Party

Recently, I decided I wanted to have a special play date for Emily. Winter was dragging on and I needed a project and something fun to look forward to doing. Downton Abbey and Emily's pretend play inspired me to throw a Valentine's Tea Party. I'm not a big planner, but the fact is that sometimes you have to start planning several weeks in advance to get a date on the calendar and make it work with everyone's busy schedule. I'm usually like, "Hey let's see if one of your friends wants to meet at the park tomorrow" and that's all the play date planning I ever, ever do. I had so much fun with this that I may have to make it an annual event.

So, we set a date and decided that we would have three friends to come over. Each friend brought their favorite doll and their Mommy. The little girls played with their dolls at the small play table and then had their "tea" at our kitchen table. The Moms got to eat in the dining room and use the good china. I was able to catch up some with my friends despite frequent interruptions from the little girls. I enjoyed searching on pinterest for tea party ideas. However, it was easy to get discouraged and overwhelmed by all of the GORGEOUS ideas that I did not have the time or desire to do. I kept reminding myself, "Girl, this party is for your three year old and you have a five mon. old nursing baby. KEEP IT SIMPLE!"

MENU

Hot spiced cider (instead of tea for the girls)

Hot tea and coffee or cider options for the ladies

Heart shaped Rice Krispie treats dipped in white chocolate 

Heart shaped sugar cookies with red and white icing and sprinkles

Fresh Fruit

Emily and her friends

Emily loved her heart shaped cookies and rice krispie treats

Love this little cake stand I got for Christmas and how you can change out the ribbon to match the decor.

Love how preppy she looks here. 

These simple sugar cookies took way longer to make than I anticipated, but I did enjoy eating on them the rest of the week!

Little Girls' table

Little boy who wasn't invited (but did make an appearance.) 

The girls had a good time setting the table and feeding their dolls.

Kennedy D.

Elyse

Molly

And I include this last shot because this is real life

Emily took a few minutes to warm up to the idea of having several little girls in her house playing with her stuff, but once she got used to it, she had a great time. I was happy that the girls played and shared well together. It was great having so many sweet girls in our home. 

Special thanks to Jeremy for taking the photos and then disappearing with Caleb to the nursery for the tea party. He did a great job. I just wish I would have taken one photo of all the Moms and daughters together because that would have been awesome to have.