Lailey's 5th Birthday Tea

Birthdays are so fun! Especially when you're turning five and want a tea party. After Christmas, Lailey and I began our usual birthday brainstorming...what are we going to do this year? Since receiving a mini porcelain tea set from my sister for Christmas, she has tea parties almost daily. Her dolls and even Maddox are regular guests. She begs me to make her real tea (which I do occasionally) and she sits on the hard floor with a big towel and pours tea with milk and sugar and drinks it to her heart's content. I was excited when she decided on a tea party for her birthday, because I love tea too.  To begin planning, I cautiously showed her some ideas on Pinterest to see what she would like. I say "cautiously" because even grown-ups (no one I know!) can get sucked into the world of birthday parties on Pinterest. Some folks like to spend hundreds of $$$ on birthday parties for kids. I love special birthday parties, but no need for a huge price tag. Kids don't care! Okay, done with that.

I did decide to do some fun food stuff but keep the decorations really simple. The table would be the main focus with all the dishes and food, and that would be lovely I decided. Cheese and crackers, tea sandwiches (pb & honey, cut into little flowers), crumpets w/ blueberry butter (recipe here), fruit, and tea of course, hot and iced. Oh, and cupcakes for dessert. I can cook well, but for my tiny kitchen, that's a lot of food prep, so I took a short cut and used a strawberry cake mix but made cream cheese icing myself. It was so worth it. I LOVE cream cheese icing and everyone else did too. 

The birthday girl's favorite tea cup

Now, how did Lailey know to ask for crumpets? Well, I'm not entirely sure, except that Davey was joking with her one day awhile back about having a proper tea party with "tea and crumpets" (said in a hoity-toity British accent), and I guess she remembered it. I honestly didn't even know what they were. Check out the link above for pictures and a description, since I didn't get any pictures of mine. Oops!

The tea was "Passion Berry" from Teavana. Lailey picked it because it was a dark pink color when brewed. I sweetened it a little with honey since I didn't know if the kids would like it plain, the way we usually drink it. For the iced tea I made "Opus Rouge," which was delicious too. The cups are actually from England and they belonged to my mom, which made it really special. I was a bit nervous using fine china with kids, but they did really well. One of the reasons we had the party inside is because I have carpet and I hoped that would cushion the fall of any of the dishes.

Lailey enjoying her tea and looking way too grown up.

I said "smile!" and this is what I got. That's my kid!

All the guests were asked to dress up and bring along their favorite doll or stuffed animal (or, in Eli's case, his Spiderman). The toys had tea with a mini tea set while we had ours. Everyone looked so cute all dressed up.

Lailey with Eli, her friend from Classical Conversations (homeschool group)

Maddox enjoying his cupcake (he likes tea too!)

Ella and Stormy

Brookelyn and Camille

Mia

Eli

Zadee

So after all the proper manners and sitting still, it was outside for...piñata time! Lailey really wanted a piñata for her birthday, so being the DIY person I am, I looked up instructions on how to make one. I could have done it, but I ultimately decided that spending $12.99 on Amazon was a great price compared to the hours I would have spent. It's true: time is money. 

Davey giving instructions. Giving kids a stick and telling them to swing is dangerous!

Side note: our neighbors had a baby shower that day, hence all the cars. I love the streamers in the tree. It cracks me up!

Birthday girl goes first. We chose to forego the blindfold since the kids were so young.

That's one determined kid!

Smallest to biggest...Maddox next.

Zadee's turn

Then Mia

Ella takes a swing

Camille up to bat (Lailey and Mia have lost interest in the background)

Stormy gets her chance.

Once all the kids tried (or "whopped it" as Maddox likes to say), Davey knew he'd have to break it since they hadn't even made a dent. Three hits and...the stick broke! Haha. That was a solid piñata! He just dumped the candy on the ground and let them have it.

Everyone had a lovely time, and as you can see, lots of memories were made. It was such a fun "big girl" way to celebrate turning five.