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Dress-up Tea -3yr- Fancy Sandwiches & Cookies

February 2005

Heather in Des Moines, IA USA

Honorable Mention

Dress Up Tea Party, 3 year old My daughter was turning 3 years old. Like most girls this age she is into playing dress up. I decided to have a tea party so all of the party guests could play dress up.

The invitations were lavendar card stock attached to a tea bag. The instructions on the back of the invitation were to come "dressed down as we will be dressing up when you get here". As each guest arrived my 7 year old son greeted them at the door in his dress up clothes (my husband's sport coat and tie and a top hat and white gloves). He was the butler for the day and took each little lady's coat and announced them as they entered. 

Our living room and dining room are one big "great" room. We had different stations set up. At the first station the little ladies got to pick out the dress they would be wearing for tea. I had purchased (at garage sales, thrift stores, and consignment shops) different sizes of Easter dresses, flower girl dresses, even some adult sized formals. It sounds expensive, but at our Goodwill they were $3 a piece...I spent probably $20 on dresses and they could later be used for my daughter's dress up trunk.

The next station was accessories. We have a wonderful dollar store in our town and I shopped there for beaded necklaces and braceletts. The girls got to pick out their accessories to go with their dresses. 

The next station was hats. I went to a local craft store and purchased wide brim straw gardening hats ($1.09 each) then I glued ribbon and silk flowers on each hat. I made one for each guest. The total cost of each hat was $3 and instead of taking home a grab bag they got to pick out a hat and that was their's to take home.  

The next station was makeup. Of course, I had an adult assisting with this station. The girls mainly had blue eye shadow, blush and red lipstick. They got a HUGE kick out of the way they looked with makeup on.  

The final station was shoes. Again, the dollar store. I had purchased play dress up shoes at the dollar store (6 or 7 pairs).   After the girls were done picking out their outfits and dressing we went into the kitchen for tea. I had taken tulle and hung it from the ceiling (over the kitchen table) and then wrapped it with white Christmas lights. Instead of streamers that was the decoration. 

The table had an English Rose center piece. Again, I found some peach and off white silk roses at the dollar store, arranged them and placed them in the center of the table. The table cloth had the same color roses on it and was also purchased at the dollar store.  Each girl had a place card with their name.

Each place setting was a tea cup and saucer and a small plate for sandwiches. Each girl got to take a turn pouring themselves a cup of tea from the teapot. Our snacks were cheese sandwiches cut into triangles. We had tea and sandwiches followed by heart shaped cookies with frosting in pastel colors (I bought refridgerated sugar cookie dough and cut into little heart shapes).  

Next came the presents then finally the birthday cakes.  The cake was just a sheet cake with a miniature tea set on top (I purchased the miniature tea set in the toy section of the dollar store).   I had purchased tea cups from the thrift store (Goodwill or Salvation Army) for 39 cents each. I made cupcakes then placed a cupcake inside each tea cup then frosted and decorated. Each girl got a teacup filled with a cupcake to take home with them.   The little ladies had a wonderful afternoon.

The dress up part of the party was so fun. It took the longest so there was no need to plan a game. I invited the moms to stay if they wanted to. All of them did and got pictures of their daughters dressing up.   It sounds like I spent a lot on items for dressing up. Total I spent a little over $40 for the clothes, shoes, hats, accessories and teacups.   It was such a memorable day!

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