We are in the midst of the birthday season/back to school rush at our house.  This year we let the kids have parties with a few friends to celebrate their 7th and 10th birthdays.  (I can’t believe I now have a 10-year-old!!  He seems so old now that he’s hit the double digits!)

We had Katie’s princess tea party on Saturday and Tim’s laser tag party will be tomorrow.  So many parties for kids involve processed foods washed down with soda and a treat bag full of candy to take home.  We managed to avoid most of the usual kids’ party fare and I think the girls still had a great time.  (We’ve yet to see how homemade pizza, strawberry fizz and blackberry cake goes over with the 10-year-old boy crowd!)

Here’s the birthday girl in her tea room.  :)  We decorated simply with a flowered tablecloth and flowered cups and napkins.  I made some colorful banners to hang around the room using some scrapbook paper and bias tape.  These took 20 minutes at most to make and I think they turned out really cute:

For activities, the girls decorated crowns and wands, played Queen says (a princess version of Simon Says) and Kiss the Frog (a pin the tail on the donkey game).  The frog game turned out really cute.  I just drew a picture of a frog on poster board and printed out some clipart lips for the girls to stick on:

I used craft supplies I already had for the crowns and wands, so altogether the games only cost about $1 to put together!

Their tea party menu:

cream cheese and cucumber sandwiches

pb&j sandwiches (made with homemade peanut butter and jelly)

mini muffins (zucchini carrot muffins)

fruit kebabs

pink princess lemonade

water bottles

glitter cake

I realize there is no actual tea in this menu, but honestly tea doesn’t really go over well with most kids at this age.  The pink princess lemonade was a big hit though which is great because it was a last minute improvisation:

1 12 oz bag frozen strawberries

evaporated cane juice

lemon juice

water

I just simmered the strawberries in a little water until they were soft enough to be blended.  I made a simple sugar syrup by dissolving the sugar in some water.  I mixed the strawberry blend with the sugar syrup and lemon juice and added water until it was the right concentration.  I strained out the strawberry seeds so it looked a little prettier for the girls and they loved it!

The cake was from a recipe that I tried to adapt with wheat flour.  Let’s just say it was a little dense.  I’m still trying to get the hang of working with wheat flour.  It’s a lot harder to get fluffy baked goods with wheat flour.  Some of the girls said they needed a saw to cut their cake with.  ;)  I tried not to take too much offense; most of them did end up eating every last crumb of their cake.  The only concession to processed foods I made with the cake were the glitter sprinkles on top.  I tried to tint my frosting pink with some strawberry jam, but it didn’t work at all.  And the cake just looked so sad and dreary with just the white frosting on it.

We sent the girls home with treat bags filled with various princess things we found at the Party City clearance.  We got stickers, tattoos, a crown, a watch and lipgloss for each girl for only $2 a bag.

I hope the girls had a fun time at the party.  I had so much fun planning and preparing for this party with my little princess.  There is nothing sweeter than 5 little girls in party dresses enjoying a tea party.