Mistress's Birthday on a Budget

I suppose that you've been kept in suspense long enough, did anyone guess the theme? Garden Party was a good guess, but actually it was an Alice in Wonderland Tea Party! (That turned more into a regular garden tea party...) Whatever, the kids had a great time so no matter what the theme it was a success!

We were lucky enough to have the temperature drop this week into the mid '80s, plus we have a great shade spot in the afternoon. I started off by stringing some tissue paper flowers up between two trees, three of which were left over from a baby shower I helped with in the spring. I made the purple ones because it is Mistress's favorite color, and had a festive decoration for a small amount of money. Cost? $2 for the purple tissue paper. Everything else I already had. We also used the table and chairs from Mistress's room, and the one chair from the front porch. I actually liked the mix and match look and it worked perfectly. Cost? $0. The little topiary came from my friend's little girl's party and she was nice enough to offer it to me to use for Mistress's party. Again, no cost to me!

The tablecloth and napkins were a vintage find on ebay, for only $5! The little tea dishes are ones that my mom got for Mistress when she was first born. It was nice to get them out and use them!

I spent $3 on these little paper cups from Michael's arts and crafts and used half of them for strawberries. I also enlisted my sister in law to cut out ham, turkey, cheese, and bread into little scalloped circles for tea sandwiches.

Since we had just done the cupcake thing last weekend, I got Mistress's favorite cookies from Target and added the words 'Eat Me' to go with the whole Alice in Wonderland theme. A cake decorator I am not...

I also used the great idea of pre-scooping the ice cream before the party starts, using more of the little muffin cups. It saved so much time!

Mistress and Miss K find the table...

Mistress, Miss K and Miss A all find the tea party to be a lot of fun!

We did a simple craft, all the girls made footprint butterflies! We used paint that matched all of their rooms and each kiddo made three butterflies. Then at the end of the party each girl took home three prints, one of her own and one of each of the other two girls'. It ended up being really cute, and I've already hung Mistress's up in her room as a special keepsake!

After the party was over, we put the tissue flowers up over MM's bed. She is so excited!!!

Overall it was a successful party, although The Professor was attacked by wasps when DH stumbled across a nest in our railing. Luckily, it turns out that he is not allergic. The girls all played in the water table after eating using plastic tea cups and teapots, and ran around the backyard with their brothers. They are all worn out from the afternoon, as am I. It will be an early night tonight since tomorrow is a big day...SCHOOL STARTS!!!