The tea party: Mrs. B turns 9

I never posted pictures from the tea party!  It was cute if I do say so myself, Miss B and I had a lot of fun planning, cooking and setting it all up but to be honest, the real hit with the kids was the swimming!  It probably had something to do with the 100+ degree heat...

We shopped around places like Home Goods, Marshalls and Tuesday Morning for some cute tea towels and I made tea towel aprons for each of the girls.  They served two purposes, they helped to decorate the table and then went into their take home bags.  Mine were simply wide grossgrain ribbon sewed across the front of the towels, but if you wanted to be a little fancier, you could add pockets, buttons and trim or stitch or iron on a monogram.

B. is a *bit* like me when it comes to food- she wanted all of her favorite foods there!  Every day she thought of something else we should serve, but we eventually narrowed it down to cinnamon rolls, little fower and butterfly sandwiches, chocolate strawberries, cream wafers, and mini muffins.  To drink she insisted on hot chocolate (remember the heat?) and orange juice.

For the sandwiches, we did cucumbers with chive cream cheese on flowers (cut from white bread of course!)  and then turkey with cheddar cheese in butterfly shapes.  The little pink and orange flags were a clearance Martha Stewart find and since they matched our colors we just had to use them!  We grabbed a bunch of mixed roses from the grocery store at the last minute, cut them short and put them in some little empty jars I had and tied them off with hot pink ribbon.

One other idea I had that would have been really cute, would be to use a vinyl cutter (Cricut, Silhouette etc.) to decorate or personalize the tea cups!  I didn't have a collection of mis-matched pretty china patterns, and didn't want to buy more for the party so we just used my wedding china which was plain and simple, but could have been adorable with some added pink and orange flowers or something! Oh and one tip, chocloate covered strawberries are best served on cooler days- the first one that was taken slid right out of the chocolate! 

PS- Did I mention I have a 9 year old??  How and when did that happen?  I can't possibly be that old! SHE can't possibly be that old! 9 more years and she'll be a woman.  Going to college.  That cannot be possible...