Selma turns seven today and she had her birthday party on Saturday (of course, we’ll celebrate again tonight). She decided to have a tea party, she was inspired by the “Felicity” books she’s been reading, and she wanted to wear an “old fashioned” dress. I called my mom and asked her to send my favorite dress from when I was little. It’s pink dotted swiss with a pink gingham pinafore. Amazingly, it fits her perfectly (I must have been older when I wore it because I was not as big as Selma at seven).
Selma’s friend Mia also got very excited about having a special dress and talked her grandmother into making one just for the occasion–it’s purple gingham, with flowers.
Selma and I had a great time getting ready for the party. We browsed around Oriental Trading Company and found some hats and little white gloves to give as party favors… We didn’t have any china with service for 10, so we made several trips to the thrift store to find pretty cups and saucers to use (we let the girls take those home with them too).
While I normally like to do any food prep I can in the days leading up to a party, in this case, everything needed to be made right before serving (I did make the cupcakes the night before). So with the party at eleven a.m., it made for a busy morning.
Selma thought it would be fun (really, I promise this was not my idea), to have the girls embroider handkerchiefs as a craft at the party. It turned out to be a big success–James and I set up the embroidery hoops the night before and he and I both made samples for the girls to see, we threaded all the needles in advance. The girls did a great job, and they were amazingly focused. When I suggested we should finish up to start the tea, they all chorused “oh, no, we’re still working!”
The menu at tea included three kinds of tea sandwiches (cucumber; cream cheese and tomato; and veggie faux “chicken” salad), then scones with butter (I posted the recipe on Comfort Kitchen), jelly, and whipped “cream,” and finally mini cupcakes (orange with a chocolate buttercream). The tea was Rooibos (African Red Bush) which is a very mild twig tisane that has a slight vanilla flavor. All the food had vanished by the end of the party–I ended up making the scones again this morning because they were so yummy (and easy).
The girls all rose to the occasion and had a great time being formal and polite. It was great to watch them interacting in a new way. Parents started arriving almost as soon as tea was over–the time flew by–but I’m still exhausted, and still cleaning up. If you’d like, you can see more pictures on flickr
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