A spot of tea

I've only got a little bit of time to post about our lovely tea party birthday for Abbie (I'm just taking a quick break in between cleaning up after the party and preparing dinner for friends tonight). I'll just give you the highlights in photos:

I was up until 12:30am last night, decorating after a ladies night at our church. One of the things that I think turned out the nicest was the cupcake tiered cake that I made. I started with this (see above) and this is how it looked when it was finished:

I covered it all with a piece of pink floral fabric from my fabric box, tied ribbons around the layers to help hold the fabric in place, and then added the cupcakes.

The table was covered with a cream tablecloth, and on top this floral pink,blue and white piece of fabric (it fit the table perfectly!). I decorated a basket with lace woven around the handle and some cream fabric draped inside for holding scones, set out a silver dish for fig newtons, and put pink napkins fanned out, as well as under each tea cup.

I chose to use cheap teacups, partially because that's all I had (and didn't want to borrow nice ones from someone), and partially because I didn't want to be upset if a 3 year old broke an expensive or old teacup.

In the family room, I set up our outdoor table,

with homemade playdoh (more of a doughy clay, really), in pink, green and blue (I got the recipe from a book called Mudworks: Creative Clay, Dough, and Modeling Experiences).

The kids made shapes using cookie cutters at the beginning of the party, I glazed them with buttermilk, and then baked them in the oven for an hour, while we ate and opened gifts.

Abbie had a wonderful time, and the children looked so adorable, all done up in their dress clothes and pretty dresses. I wish I could show you how cute they all were, sitting on the couch together.

Each child went home with the baked shapes they had made, and a little bag of playdoh to use at home. My kids went down for a nap shortly thereafter. And I've been feverishly cleaning and cooking ever since!  But  I'm so glad I went to all the effort- it was such a lovely little tea party, dahling!