6879

Dress-Up Tea Party 7yr - Beauty Parlor

July 2003

Mara in Albuquerque, NM

Special Mention

Dress Up Tea Party- For my daughter's 7th birthday she asked for a tea party.  She and her friends love to dress up and play house.  She and I usually have a tea party on the weekends when her brother takes a nap.  It is our time to "catch up". 

For invitations we traced and cut out teapots.  We wrote the information on the back.  We taped some string to the teapots and attached a small heart shaped note that said, "Please wear or bring tights!" 

My daughter has two trunks full of inexpensive dress up clothes.  Before the party, she and I put complete outfits in ziplock bags.  We included accessories and shoes.  This would make it easy for the girls to choose what they wanted without having to fight over skirts, tops, necklaces, etc.

We decorated the house using blue, pink, and purple streamers and balloons.  We had four kid-sized tables.  I found some inexpensive fabric (pink with purple hearts) and made small tablecloths for the tables.  I made some for the adult tables also.  I used my daughter's tea sets to decorate the tables.  I bought inexpensive small silk flowers and used the tea cups and teapots as mini vases. 

Most of the party was held outdoors, except for the dress up part. As the girls and boys arrived, I had two stations set up to keep guests entertained until everyone arrived.  The boys could build with blocks, while the girls could make jewelry.  When everyone arrived we took them all into my daughter's  bedroom.  The boys played outside a little longer, since their makeovers would take less time. 

My daughter's room had several stations: dress up, hair, make up, and nails.  On the door we taped a sign that said "Beauty Parlor" and an "Open" sign.  I leaned a full-length mirror (sideways) on my daughter's dresser and put a row of chairs in front of it, grouped to mark the different stations.  The dress up station:  two trunks filled with their choice of clothes, shoes and accessories. 

The Hair Station: my 15 and 16 year old nieces fixed up  everyone beautifully.  Each girl was allowed to keep the comb and hair accessories.  The Make Up Station: I made up each little girl using light eye shadow, tinted lip gloss, and face and body glitter. Each girl was given their own lip gloss and packet of body glitter. 

Nail station:  My sister and my best friend painted their nails using light colors.  When the girls were almost done, we called in the boys.  We had fancy top hats, bow ties and ties, jackets, as well as, a cowboy outfit, a fireman costume, and a policeman costume.  We drew a mustache on those who let us, using an eyeliner. Finally everyone lined up for a fashion show.  One of my nieces made sure they stayed in line, while the other talked to the audience about what each guest was wearing. 

After the fasion show we gave awards.  I bought ribbons with medals and gave them to Miss Pretty Eyes, Miss Congeniality, Mr. Funny Pants and so on.   All the awards were positive and the kids loved getting medals.  We took picturesof the kids, which I used for the thank you notes.  I made them into post cards and mailed them. 

We stopped the games to let the kids eat and sing "Happy Birthday".  Since the party started at 2:00, I didn't plan a big menu. I made sandwiches (ham salad, egg salad, chicken salad, PBJ), brownies, and mini muffins.  I also bought different kinds of cookies and cheesecake, which I cut into bite sized pieces, chocolate dipped strawberries, and fruit salad.  Of course we had tea (iced), lemonade, and punch.  I made a teapot cake and tea cup cupcakes.  I also make a sheet cake and put a  tiara and some candy jewelry and make up on it.  My daughter helped me decorate this one. After cake and ice cream, we continued the fun and games. 

We stuck with the ol' favorites with a twist: Hot Teapot, Telephone or the Gossip Game, Musical teapots (standing on pictures of teapots), Pin the handle on the teapot, and A dress up relay. The games were a blast.  There were prizes for all, win or lose.  After the games were over, I set up my daughter's castle tent in the backyard.  The girls either read or played cards in there (it's pretty big).     

Each child took all the prizes they won for the games as well as a favor bag.  The girls got a "beauty bucket" filled with a tea cup and saucer, pearl necklace, white gloves, stick on earrings, sunglasses, candy jewelry and make up, comb, hair accessories, lip gloss, body glitter, stickers, and nail polish.  The boys got a baseball themed bag with a foam baseball, stickers,   pencil, baseball notepad, whistle, air head candy, candy watches, sunglasses, mini game, gumball, and a top hat. This party was so much fun, especially for us girls.  My daughter wants to do it again just for fun.  Right!

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