When my girls were born I bought them each a flower of the month tea cup that we use for little tea parties and that is theirs to take to their new home when they move out. I still haven't decided what to do for the boys. My favorite plan is to wait and see who they marry and then buy the teacups then. The only hitch is Royal Albert doesn't seem to be making them anymore. Let's hope enough survive for Ebay to supply my need.I've made a new friend and she has three daughters about the same ages as my girls. We try to get them together once a month or so, and I had the crazy idea of throwing a tea party. Marlene liked the idea as much as I did so we were off. The girls did a surprising amount of the planning, esp. the games. We moms really only had to deal with food. Some things were difficult because of one party-goers multiple food allergies, but that just made it fun. I wanted everyone to have a real teacup, so I went to multiple thrift stores and found them quite inexpensively. I recommend it because it does make them feel so grown up. I offered apple juice (we were a little dressed up), black tea and raspberry tea. Out of the thirteen children served, raspberry tea was the clear winner with 10 children choosing it.
We had our craft table under a fairy tent. Marlene is an artist and her fairy people craft was a huge hit. My girls are still making fairies. The tent captured their imaginations so they stayed under there longer than expected. They finally came up for charades. I'm forgetting the spider web game that they played at the beginning for an ice breaker. It's become a bit of a lovely blur. They ate proper tea sandwiches with a amazing relish--empty platters. Marlene was up again with decorating desert. We had tiny cupcakes and ice cream cones. Everyone did such a great job.
All in all, a great experience and not overwhelming when you share the work with a friend.
