The Life

3rd Annual Valentine’s Day Tea Party

Posted on February 9, 2016

Mini and I hosted our 3rd annual Tea party this weekend and let me just tell you, we had such a good time! She was so into planning it with me this year. From the decor to the menu she had an input on all of it. Everytime I did anything this past month either in the craft room or the kitchen she would ask “mama, if that for the tea party?” I love how excited she is getting over our yearly tradition.

We invited all of the girls in her class this year so we were expecting a pretty full house. I planned on serving brunch and having a craft activity for all of the girls to work on. Almost all of the girls Mini invited came with their moms and they all looked so pretty in their Valentine’s Day outfits. I was impressed with how well behaved all of the girls were. Last year it was a bit more chaotic with a bunch of 3 year old girls running around but this year the girls sat at their big table and ate lunch and chatted just like little ladies. Such a difference one year made. It was so cute to see them all sitting and talking together as they munched on tiny sandwiches and sipped their lemonade. They all worked on their craft and even decided they all wanted to color pictures after.

Party Details

Food + Drinks:

We had little tea sandwiches that included: egg salad on wheat bread // chicken salad in mini croissants // heart shaped pb&j. I served spinach and cheese mini quiche and for the first time ever a ham and swiss puff pastry pinwheel. (My friend Christina and I literally assembled and threw that in the oven last minute and it was pretty tasty!)

Of course we needed a dessert bar. Which all the girls were happily enjoying before having any thing to eat for lunch 🙂 I just picked up some items at the store as to not make too much work for myself. We had mini powdered donuts // mini vanilla and chocolate cupcakes // blueberry scones // chocolate chip muffins // lemon bar + pudding individual treats. A few of our friends generously brought us some muffins and lemon bars to add to our sweets table! Lastly, if you follow me on Instagram you may have seen I made a batch of chocolate covered rice krispie treat pops last week. Well, we had so many sweets that I ended up wrapping them for the girls to take home! You can see the picture below.

For drinks I grabbed some raspberry lemonade for the girls. I also made a batch of Tazo Iced passion tea lemonade (it’s SO good!). And of course, I had a make your own mimosa bar for the moms! I put out a few bottles of prosecco on ice and had carafes of grapefruit juice and orange juice so moms could make their mimosa to their liking. PARTY TIP: I take a 12 count cupcake pan a few days before the party and pour water into all the cupcake holes. Then I stick a little slice of lemon in each one. I freeze the tin and when it’s frozen pop out all the big ice cubes. It is perfect for keeping pitchers of water and tea cold and you can even see the slices of lemon floating around the drinks.

The Décor:

I set up on big kids sized table for the girls so that they could all sit together while they ate. I have a few IKEA Lack tables in the playroom, so I pushed them together with another kids sized table that I had to create one long, rectangular table. I needed a table cloth big enough so I went to the fabric store and picked an adorable printed fabric. I had them cut how much I needed to cover all four tables. (I won’t tell you how much I accidently spent on said fabric after the store wouldn’t take my coupon, but no worries. I just told Mike I would make a pair of palazzo pants out of the fabric so it wouldn’t be a total waste. If anyone wants a pair of palazzo pants, let me know, haha!)

I had leftover pink disposable plates from Mini’s 2nd birthday party (this is why I don’t throw anything away..) so we set the table with those. I bought small clear cups for the girls and personalized each one with their name in vinyl. It was so fun to watch them find their spot at the table and use their very own personalized cup. I picked up a bunch of simple flowers from Costco and trimmed half of them down to make table centerpieces. I used stemless wine glasses as the vases and they were the perfect height!

I strung some garland that I made with my silhouette cameo in both hearts and X + O’s on the wall beside the big table. Mini just loved it. (After the party I took the garland off that wall and strung it on our fireplace!)

The Craft:

I originally planned to make salt dough heart ornaments for all of the girls to paint. Well, I did make salt dough hearts. I made a ton of them. I had them drying on the dining room table for days. The night before the party, I thought that some were still a little soft, maybe because we have had such cold weather. So I stuck them in the oven at 200* to finish drying out the dough. Well, as soon as they came out of the oven they all started to crack into pieces. Insert panic mode here. The party was the next morning, and we already bought all the paint for this project.

My GENIUS of a best friend suggested that I have all the girls paint pieces of the salt dough in the colors that Mini picked at the store, then glue them all onto a board to make a mosaic out of them. Well that is exactly what I did. And I am so in love with this project. (See it in the pictures below!) It is the perfect keepsake from her tea party that all of her friends had a part in making. Mini can’t decide where in her room to hang it, but she thinks it is just “awesome”!

Our Valentine’s Day Tea Party tradition is becoming on of my favorite days of the year. I love planning the details with Mini and including her in all of the decisions. Seeing her face when it all comes together is just priceless. I am so grateful for these memories that we are making and canhardly wait to start planning for next year!