Mother's Day Tea

Ever since Amelia got the Fancy Nancy Tea Party book for Christmas, we've been talking about how much fun it would be to host a tea party of our own. So, about two months ago we got serious and decided we would host a Mother's Day Tea Party for both of Amelia's grandmothers and both of her great-grandmothers. We are lucky to have such wonderful women in our lives!

So before we even sent out invitations, we started copying projects from the book (which I LOVE by the way). The ideas were so cute and simple to recreate and it was perfect for my craft-loving little lady. We tried to complete a project each week or so: decorated placemats, bejeweled plastic ware, tissue paper corsages, place cards, painted flower pots, and a keychain photo album.

Unfortunately I took ZERO pictures of those projects. But, at least Jason got out the camera this morning to get a picture of apron-clad Amelia setting the table. All I had to do was open the Fancy Nancy book to the correct page and she was off matching each place setting to the book!

We had six attendees to our tea party and Amelia was bummed to have to stop after making only six of these fancy place mats.
She was in charge of picking the shape of each place mat, as well as jewel placement. The one below was extra bejeweled because it was the one she made for herself.

Another highlight was added the gems to the forks and spoons. So fun for us both, really.


And in true Fancy Nancy fashion, we folded the napkins accordion-style and put them in the tea cups. Incidentally, we were two tea cups short for our party so my mom went to the antique mall to try to pick up two inexpensive cups. She found this extremely appropriate "Mother" tea cup and saucer. She also got a teeny tiny cup and saucer set for Amelia.

The place cards were mostly Amelia's creation as well. She picked out these princess toothpicks at the store and I added each lady's name. She decided to copy FN's idea to stick them into large marshmallows. Turns out she was just interested in eating them all on party day. Guess I should have seen that coming!

I am honored that she was able to make my place card herself. She has several words that she can write on her own and "MOM" is one of them. Awww.

She made her own place card too. She had to write it very, very small and I am a bit surprised quite frankly that she could do it!

We had practiced some things we could say when our "guests" arrived including, "Welcome to my tea party", "Would you like a corsage?", or "Happy Mother's Day!". When our first guest arrived, "Don't I look fancy?" is what came out of her mouth.

our tissue paper corsages waiting to be passed out

When each guest arrived, she put a corsage on each of their wrists. They were attached with pipe cleaners and she could do it completely by herself, which of course, she enjoyed!



After each lady received her corsage, she was directed to choose a fancy hat to decorate. There were many embellishments to choose from including fake flowers, feathers, jewels, stickers, and greenery. They were put on with a glue gun. I wasn't sure how everyone would feel about this considering the hats were made from plastic bowls and neon construction paper. But, everyone was a great sport and the hats turned out surprisingly cute!

I mean you've seen worse hats at church on Easter Sunday, right?

Of course, we couldn't pass up a group picture of everyone looking equally silly, er, lovely in their homemade hats.

After the hat making was completed, it was time to eat! I have to give full credit at this point to Jason for acting as the tea party chef. Amelia was the sous chef. They planned the menu, grocery shopped, and prepared the entire meal for the party. The food is my LEAST favorite thing to plan for a party so I was eternally grateful for this. And, to top it off, they actually did a great job. Everything was DELICIOUS!

The table prior to devouring the grub. (NOTE: "grub" is NOT a Fancy Nancy word!). I used my grandma's china as well as some of her table scarfs for decoration. I wish that she could have been there with us for the special day, so I felt like it was nice to at least use some of the fancy things that she passed on to me.

What was on the menu you ask? Tiny chicken salad and PB&J sandwiches (complete with fancy toothpicks holding them together and no crust), fruit kebobs, cheese fondue with vegetables and bread for dipping, puppy chow, and a make-your-own ice cream sundae bar for dessert. To drink Jason and Amelia whipped up some pink lemonade and some tea (duh!) complete with cut up lemons in the pitcher and lemon slices for our cups.

I'm pretty sure Amelia was trying to make sure everyone was drinking with their pinkies up in this picture!

While we ate, I decided to share what Amelia made me at school for Mother's Day. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the drawing she made that was on the other side, but I really liked the answer to the questions that were asked. Particularly, "My mom likes to make things that I don't like to eat". Sigh. At least I was pretty when we went to Tennessee I guess!

Even though the tea party was supposed to be girls only, Amelia granted a special exemption to Henry who got all dressed up for the occasion.

And, actually he ended up in a seat of honor during the meal--Amelia's coveted princess chair that Henry has grown to know and love.

that face says: please burn this picture as soon as I'm old enough to understand what its all about.

And, we certainly could not have had a Mother's Day tea party without a special little gift for each lady to take home. Luckily, I had these tins leftover from Amelia's birthday party last year and they were perfect for the photo key ring I made for each mom/grandma.

Amelia also spent a lot of time painting pots for each special woman. She did a great job and they turned out so cute! We planted some impatiens in each pot the weekend before the party.

After we ate, Henry entertained us with some rolling over and Amelia played a few "pretty" songs on her princess piano. After she got bored with that, she grabbed my camera and snapped a few pics of the party. I'm actually glad she did because she got some good ones!

NOTE: These pictures have been significantly cut down from the 35 or so that she originally took.

And last of all, a few pictures with my special lady and some of the amazing women in her life:

Great Grandma Ward and Amelia

GG and Amelia

Grandma and Amelia

Great Grandma Sinovich and Amelia

Thanks for a lovely tea party ladies! We will have to make this an annual tradition for sure!