A Par"tea" for an 8 Year Old Princess

I think I mentioned previously that sweet Desiree is 8 now.  I still can't get over it.  It can be tough to have a birthday party up here in February:  it pretty much MUST be indoors.  And since Jeremy and I have an apartment that has enough room, I told Christina I would host Desiree's party if she wanted me to.  She appreciated that, and we went to planning.  And what we came up with (with Desiree's help, of course) was a "tea" party birthday.  We had pink hot chocolate instead of tea. 

I love to host parties.  Especially the kind with food (and what kind of good party doesn't have that ;)?).  I spent some time pinning tea party ideas on pinterest, and then invited Desiree over to look over the ideas and choose what she would like at her party.  For activities we bought straw hats and got fake flowers and ribbons and lace and let the girls decorate their own tea party hat.  We also had some beads (of which I have a kajillion left over) so they could each string their own bracelet (I learned I should not have gone with cheap Dollar Tree stuff on this, since the elastic string was horrible and came untied easily).  And then my mom ordered these little party favor things where you basically decorated a teapot and could put candy inside.  We also had feather boas for them each to have -- and I had bought some fancy fans at the Dollar Tree that they could each choose and keep. 

For the food, Desiree selected cheese cubes, tea party sandwiches, chocolate-dipped strawberries, fruit kebabs, and chocolate-dipped strawberry wafers; along with the pink hot chocolate.  And, of course, there was also cupcakes and ice cream.  I did cupcakes with the idea that the kids could decorate their own cupcake -- and then I found an idea on pinterest to put the ice cream in a 9x13 pan and then use a cookie cutter to cut out ice cream shapes.  Let me say that I have come to the conclusion that sometimes less really is more.  And this would have been one of those times.  We had way too much food and things were a little over-board on cutesie (meaning more effort).  And, true to Nilla form, I got stressed when the time for the party started and I felt like we were behind.  Yeah, probably could have simplified a little.  But I will also say I think the girls had a great time, and I think Desiree enjoyed it.  One of the cool ideas I found somewhere (possibly through pinterest) was the idea of buying tea cups at thrift stores.  So I started hunting them down, and I found a bunch of really cute ones.  I was able to get them for less than 50 cents each and sent those home as party favors as well (I don't need a bunch of fru-fru teacups ;)). 

I don't have a lot of pictures, because I was busy doing the transitioning of table stuff (going from "tea party" food to cupcake decorating while Desiree opened presents in the living room).  Christina got a bunch of pictures, though, and maybe I'll manage to get them eventually.  But I'll post what I have :).

So Thursday night I worked on the name tags.  I'm not super-fancy or crafty, but I thought these were cute enough for place settings.

 

This is what the table looked like when I went to bed Friday night (well, Saturday morning, technically).

 

 And a close-up of Desiree's place setting.  There were 3 different types of tea cups.

At the party.  (I'm a little disappointed I didn't think to take a picture of each food item like I usually do -- but I'm pretty sure my dad isn't disappointed about that ;)).  The cheese and the fruit kebabs were the most popular.  I think we should have skipped the chocolate-dipped strawberries and probably the sandwiches too...  You live, you learn!

All the girls.  By this point, several of them had removed their hats, but this will still give you an idea of some of their fun stuff.  This was at the end of the party and basically it was just the waiting for moms to pick up time.  Saria has really gotten tall...  But, she will be 12 this year ;).

 After about an hour of cleaning up, I hurried to take a shower, because I had to get to a baptism service at 5 and then we had Stake Conference at night.  So, not the most flattering of pictures of me with my wet hair.  But Emily looked so cute walking around my house with her hat on (which Uncle Jeremy decorated for her) and her other hat in her hands (we had extra hats...)

 See?

 And so I got pictures with all 3 of the girls who were still here -- and pictures of them by themselves.  Here's the birthday party girl :).

 

And her is Saria.  Like I said, she's getting tall.  She was on her knees like I was, but I was more squatty than she.  Hahaha....

 

 But here's a better shot of her.

And because my stomach looked particularly huge to me before we left for Conference, I took a picture.  Haha...  Jeremy.

 

 And this is just one more reason I love this man :).  So I kept telling him we had to get a picture with him and his mustache before he shaved it off.  But it didn't happen -- our schedules were awful on his grave shift.  So I realized when he got home Friday morning (he left for work while I was out visiting teaching and visiting a friend Thursday night) that he had shaved off his mustache.  And I just figured, "Oh well, so we didn't get a picture."  And no big deal.  Well, last night as I was looking at all the birthday pictures I got, I noticed a picture I hadn't taken.  And when I clicked on it to enlarge it...  Well, my sweetie totally took his own picture -- just for me!  Oh how I love him!  Plus -- he was a wonderful help at the birthday party.  It was he who took the pan of ice cream around and let each girl pick what cookie cutter shape she wanted, and then he cut it out and scooped it onto their plate.  Haha...  My hero ;).

On that note... I should go and try to sleep again.  Jeremy is actually home (and was in bed asleep until about 15 minutes ago when he noticed I was not in there and came out to find me).  I think it's our attempt to adjust off of graves (he works swings this week -- my favorite schedule these days :)) and we're having a hard time sleeping.  So, I will try some more.  Because after yesterday and today (Stake Conference again, so earlier church, and we foolishly stayed up until about 2 this morning (ahem, Sunday morning) and got less than the desired amount of sleep) I should be exhausted.  So I shall try again :).