OK…while hubby watched the Super Bowl, I got a little
“Pin Happy” over at Pinterest and stumbled on some of the cutest and clever party ideas. So I thought I’d share a few with you. First up is this adorable Party Invitation
that looks like an apron. CUTE…!!!

Next is this beautiful luscious cluster of Paper Party Poms. What a pretty POP of Surprise…No centerpiece needed…

This beautiful CAKE and me doing the Peppermint Twist..
Simply stunning…!!!

And these TEA TIME treats were irresistible. So dainty and sweet…!!! 

And THIS…..!!! Well there are just no words
Oh..oh…oh…!!!

And as usual, I’m always stumbling on more creative uses for our pretty paper straws. LOVE these Marshmallow Pops perched on our Pink Dot Straws.

Go here for instructions on how to make these pretty treats.
Perfect for Valentine’s Day….!!
And one last CUTE Baby Shower Idea.
Cake Pop Baby Rattle using our sweet Pink striped paper straws for the stick…How adorable…!!!

T

Enjoy the Tea Party….. and don’t forget to visit Tamara’s blog to see what else she’s got going on.

- Before Picture -
My sissy could not & would not simply use these ‘blah’ card table and chairs. About two weeks before she had a conversation with Eden to see what her favorite colors were. Eden told her pink & black, so this is what Aunt Tanya created…

- After Picture -
She sewed chair covers and a table cloth that sure did fit the pink & black bill. We even used one of the covers and put it on Lily’s highchair so she would have a fancy place to sit also. Eden was soooooo (I cannot even add enough Os to show her excitement) when she saw just these decorations. But, there was more, much more!

Eden had her very own china place setting and little tea pot. We showed her how to pour it herself with just a little bit of help. Aunt Tanya brought her special pink sparkle raspberry lemonade to serve as her ‘tea’.

Aunt Tanya served egg salad sandwiches, fancy pb&j with marionberry jam from Washington, cucumber & cream cheese sandwiches, mini quiches, breaded mushrooms, a melon mix, and fresh strawberries. My sister made sure almost everything was dairy free so that Eden could eat without having to worry about her allergy. For tea there was Earl Grey, my absolute favorite, and a yummy cherry green tea.

Eden was on her best behavior, remembered her manners, and gave everything a try in the politest way. She even amazed me with what she liked and that she actually ate a little of everything. Her favorites was the pb & j, even after explaining sternly that she does not like jelly, but Aunt Tanya’s jelly was just right! The funniest part was when Eden tried the breaded mushroom. She does not like surprises in her food and when she discovered there was something inside the bread she quickly put it down on her plate, said ‘no thank you’, then made a comment about how there was ‘something inside there’ with a perplexed look. Lily LOVED the egg salad and all the fresh fruit. She was so excited to be eating the yummy offerings with everyone that you could tell she felt special being included. As for me, Momma loved everything! It was all very delicious.

Next came dessert. Ahhh…the choices. Cinnamon crispy twists, homemade mini cupcakes, oatmeal cookies, almond biscuits, and brownies. Again, all dairy free but Eden focused her attention on the cupcakes. I think she ate five! Her reasoning to get past one was she needed to try all the colors. I obliged as it was a special day for her and even gave Lily a cupcake to smash and mash around.

Lily’s favorite dessert was the oatmeal cookies. They were just her size and she had the crumb face to prove how much she enjoyed them!

It was a lovely day and to remember it by Aunt Tanya gave both girls their very own Tea Party personalized book. Each book has their name and age in it along with the date and location of their first tea party. Aunt Tanya read both girls their special book and then we spent the day together just us girls. I have the best sister in the world! Thank you for caring for my girls so much to do something this sweet for them. We would have been fine on that ‘blah’ table and chairs, paper goods, and hot pockets as long as we spent the day with you.
The finery just made it all the better!

Memories like this are priceless. Thank you!
Love – Your sister & two little nieces

Have a look, leave a comment, and then hop on over to Hillary’s Blog to see what else she’s got going on!

Enjoy Hillary’s Fancy Nancy Birthday party…..and please be sure to click on over to the original party post because there are a lot more pictures and many more details!

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Most of my party plans & stuff came straight from Peppers & Pollywogs & Martha Stewart.

The invite –

Lunch was served! We had little flower-shaped ham & cheese sandwiches, farfalle pasta salad, mini fruit kabobs, and punch. I wish I’d taken some detailed pictures of everything! I added rhinestones to the ends of the forks/spoons to make them extra fancy!

The favor bags, straight from Martha, had candy lipstick/jewelry, heart-shaped sunglasses, butterfly hairclips, pearl-ish necklaces, and lip gloss in them, with a boa/crown pen on the outside of the bag. The girls could also take home a pink feather boa. I got the sunglasses, clips, necklaces, & boas from Halo Heaven & they have some amazing prices in case you’re looking for party stuff or a ton of other things! Check them out!

I know this is gonna sound like I’m at an awards show, but thank you SO much Abby, Summer, & Mom for all your help! You guys are awesome & I seriously couldn’t have pulled it off without your help before the party! Thanks for staying & helping too, and also Tana (and I still can’t believe you drove your girls all the way here for the party – you rock!) & Kelly.

Ok, let’s talk TEA CUPS! Those large tea cups are the PERFECT addition to this theme. I’m totally in love with them. All the bright fun details of this party really capture the spirit of this classic tea party from Alice in Wonderland. Then there is the croquet set. Again…AMAZING! This party screams the theme from beginning to end!

Have a look, leave a comment, and then hop on over to Donna’s Blog to see what else she’s got going on!

Enjoy Donna’s Mad Hatter Tea party…..

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(click on pictures to enlarge)

I cut the 4′ tall croquet wickets out of 1/4″ plywood and painted both sides. They are supported by 1X1″ pieces of wood with rebar drilled into the bottoms.

The giant stacked tea cups took MANY hours of painting. I would even bring them to swim practice. They drew quite the crowd!

I also brought a giant chess set for kids or adults who wanted a little quiet time.

The hedgehog balls are madeout of 4″ styrofoam balls. I ripped up paper grocery bags and used Mod Podge to apply them. Each ball took about 1/2 an hour…I made 16 of them. Luckily, my friends Sandy and Marina helped me with them.

The mallets were 2′ stuffed flamingos.

My client, Tammy, had a perfect backyard for this party. We hung paper lanterns from her pergola as well as giant butterflies.

For the table, I had another stack of giant tea cups as the centerpiece. It was filled with flowers, fiddleheads and butterflies.

The placesettings consisted of plastic pink chargers, black ceramic plates with white polk dots, giant metal flower and ribbon napkin rings with chartruse napkins and black and white Cheshire cat mugs. The place card holders were butterflies in pots and I made the name cards on the computer.

It was such a wonderful party and Tammy said that I would be her party planner for life.

I’ve had a lot if inquiries about the tea cups. I got them in downtown Los Angeles at the Flower Mart. They are pretty lightweight and I think they are some sort of fiberglass.

Have a look, leave a comment, and then hop on over to Katie’s Blog to see what else she’s got going on!

Enjoy Katie’s Tea party…..

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Today was the big day, that we’ve been so busy getting ready for, our Mother’s Day Tea Party! It was so much fun! Everything looked beautiful; the food was delicious and everyone had fun doing the activities. Aren’t our fancy tea hats pretty?

It was wonderful giving my mom and mother-in-law a special day to show them how much they mean to our family and how much we love and appreciate them! Spending time with our mother’s is really what this day is all about, I love how this event gave my daughter a chance to bond and spend quality time with her Grandmas, creating wonderful memories and helping reinforce to her how much both Grandmas love her.

We’re also spending Sunday with them, so we’ll get lots of quality family time in! Originally, my husband told me that since we were having the tea, maybe I’d like to not drive across town to see his and my mother and celebrate mother’s day with my daughter and family. We could do whatever I wanted. Then I thought about it, and realized that what I wanted to do was spend it with them☺

I have been holding on to these tissue paper pom poms since last summer, when I got a great deal on a kit by Martha Stewart. I originally planned on using them for ER’s 2nd birthday party outside under our gazebo but it rained and was so humid on the day of her party that we couldn’t use them. I’m glad I had the perfect opportunity to hang them up.We used the three painted polka dot pots for our centerpiece, I added a name tag to each one and decorated it with a silk flower. You can find out how we made the pots here. It was so easy, albeit time consuming since it was spread out over a few days but even a very young child can help make them. The purple pansies looked great in them, and coordinated so well with our color scheme.My mom brought her pretty china tea cups for us to use. The Grandma’s each had a place of honor with their handprint heart photo frame “cards”. Mom also brought her Grandmother’s silver flatware, tea pot, cream, and sugar. It was so special using things once owned by my Great Grandmother, how appropriate for a Mother’s Day celebration!

Our first activity was to make fancy tea party hats. I got this great idea from my Family Fun magazine, that’s been such a good subscription! It has fantastic ideas and it’s worth every penny!

All you do it cut two pieces of 30×30 pieces of wrapping paper. Lay them together wrong sides together. Have one person hold it on their head, while another wraps colored tape around the widest part of the head. Trim off the excess paper in a circular shape, leaving about five inches border. Flip up the sides and the front “brim” of the hat. Decorate with tissue paper flowers.

To make the flowers cut large and small circles out of several layers of tissue paper. Cut a circle out of cardstock that is smaller than the smaller circles of tissue paper. Layer from largest to smallest. Put a brad through the center and attach to hat.

For once I managed to time everything really well. While the Grandmas worked on making the hats, I made the tea sandwiches. We had a nice variety and I am pleased with how everything turned out. We had four different kinds of sandwiches, cranberry orange scones, heart shaped brownies, fruit kabobs, chocolate covered strawberries, pound cake petite fours, and a fruit tart.

Family Fun Magazine also helped me out with some of the sandwich ideas. We nibbled on mini pitas filled with hummus, cucumber, and tomato. I made mini croissants with cherry almond chicken salad I purchased at the deli. For something sweet we had baguette spread with Nutella and banana slices and whole wheat triangles filled with honey walnut cream cheese with pear slices. Everything was really good!

I made the chocolate dipped strawberries and pound cake petite fours. The petite fours are the only thing I didn’t love but my mom liked them. We think that Brad and I didn’t care for the almond extract added to the frosting. I’d try them again, but only add vanilla extract. They did look pretty, even if they were slightly neon colors instead of the pastels I wanted. When they say only add a drop at a time of food coloring to the frosting, they mean it! I wish I could take credit for the fruit tart, it was so yummy but that delish treat came from Whole Foods Market and so did the great two bite mini scones.

Look a man at our Mother’s Day Tea! It’s Brad, he came home for lunch to enjoy a tasty lunch and see his mom aka Grandma Norma! For some reason he didn’t want to wear my hat for the picture ☺

Here is me and my mom aka Grammy.

The other little activity I planned was decorating frames. ER painted these when she painted the pots. The Grandmas helped her add some cute flower and butterfly foam stickers to hers. Later on, I will give each Grandma picture from today’s tea to put in it. ER would not look up at the camera because, “I’m working!”

It was a lovely day, and such a special treat to have all the ladies together! I’ve added this to I Blame My Mother’s Kid Friendly Friday.

ER and Grammy

ER and Grandma Norma

ER and Mommy

Have a look, leave a comment, and then hop on over to Heidi’s Blog to see what else she’s got going on!

Enjoy Heidi’s party…..

For Talk About Tuesday, I thought I would talk all about Mikayla’s 3rd birthday party last Friday with friends. We invited 3 of her little girlfriends over ranging in age from 2 1/2 years to 3 1/2 years to join in on the celebration and have a little dress up/tea time party. This was so much fun to plan and I couldn’t wait for Mikayla to enjoy some time with her little girlfriends in honor of her birthday!

…with the party details inside!
The Party Room
Bring on the food!
An up close view…

I made each of the girls their own little cone filled with marshmallow pops. They ended up looking like roses because I tied them with green ribbon. It was a fun addition to the decor.
The place settings

Up close of the name plates

My mom made each of the girls these cute little skirts. She claimed that they were super easy and so she whipped them out in one evening! It was her gift to Mikayla’s little friends.

Little goody bags – it was fun to spoil the girls since there were only 4 of them! I also sent the girls home with a boa, necklace, and bracelet.
Waiting for the guests to arrive!
Mikayla waited by the door ready to give each of
her friends some dress up accessories
The girls decorated foam frames with foam letters and flowers

I plan on sending them one of these
pictures to put inside the frame…
We played “Pass the Puppy”…kind of like hot potato
It was a bit tough with 3-year olds to get them to actually pass the puppy!
It’s tea time! The girls loved drinking their “tea” (apple juice) and asked for more quite often. The menu consisted of flower-shaped PB & J sandwiches, grapes and strawberries, carrots and cucumbers, mini banana muffins, and crackers.

The girls got a kick out of the tea cups turning a dark pink when the tea was poured inside.
Present time!

Instead of cake or cupakes, I decided to make cookies.

Thanks for visiting and putting up with all the party talk over the last week! I can officially say I am done with all that I had to share.

Check out some of my previous birthday posts if you haven’t been by in awhile or if you’re new to my blog!

And if you want to hear what others are talking about, head on over to The Lazy Organizer for more!