A Proper Tea is much nicer than a Very Nearly Tea, which is one you forget about afterwards. ~A.A. Milne
So Peanut had a birthday and wanted a party. The thing is, I don't do birthday parties. We don't have room to have a lot of kids over at once, and we refuse to pay an exorbitant price to have the party someplace bigger and more fun. I think my husband and I are among the few holdouts who stand firm in the belief that you don't HAVE to have a huge birthday party every year to have a happy childhood. Also, large numbers of unruly children make me crazy.
But Peanut, in her very Peanutty way, prattled on about a party. What we ended up with was a happy compromise.
Her birthday came and went and we celebrated in the usual way.... just us and the grandparents.
Then a week LATER we had a semi-impromptu tea party. We only had two guests, both were neighbors, so a total of four girls, which was perfect for my stress level.
The girls dressed up in fancy little dresses, hats, and gloves. They watched the "Time for Tea" scene from "Mary Poppins", played a Princess game, and then sat down to tea.
The table was lovely thanks to my neighbors silver teapot and my mother's rosebud teacups.
The menu was simple:
heart-shaped ham and cheese sandwiches
strawberries, white and red grapes
chocolate- dipped vanilla wafers
butter cake with white frosting
assorted fruit teas
hot chocolate
strawberry punch
There were going to be scones - we made them a few weeks ago, and they're awesome -- but we ran out of time.
Although a couple of them tried the tea, they all ended up drinking hot chocolate (big surprise!).
We also set up a tea table for their dolls. The whole thing was very sweet and I think they had a wonderful time.
After tea, they let their hair down by partying with Peanut's birthday present - a karaoke machine. We put on a Disney songs CD and they each sang a song and then in a big finale they all came together to sing "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious".
That night as I was kissing her "Good-night", Peanut said, "I know it wasn't a birthday party, but if it HAD been a birthday party, it would've been the best birthday party I ever had."
This was confirmation for me that sometimes simpler is just better.
