a very merry 4th birthday...

It's sad that I'm just now getting around to documenting Ruby's birthday - which was 2 and a half months ago. To be honest, there are a thousand things I never got around to blogging about...so I'll just consider this one, better late than never.

So for Ruby's fourth birthday (and upon her request) on june 4th, at 4 0'clock in the afternoon - we hosted a tea party and invited 24 of her little friends. She is crazy about Alice in Wonderland right now, and since there are so many things you could do with an Alice in Wonderland theme, we decided to center it around The Mad Hatter, and host a tea party. For a good couple of months we hit up every thrift store and antique shop within a 15 mile radius. We scoured the shelves for tea pots, tea cups, saucers, and really any sort of tea party accessory we could find. Every day ruby would ask me, mom is it june 4th yet? Putting the invitations together was a lot of fun...Ruby helped me pick out all the flowers and materials and we assembled and delivered them together. Finally the long-awaited and much anticipated day had arrived. We spent hours setting up for the party and getting everything in order. The pint-sized buffet table consisted of every kind of finger food imaginable...mini sandwiches, tiny fruit kabobs, sliced veggies, a variety of cubed cheeses, cookies, crackers, and all kinds of mouth watering sweets, chocolates, and candies. The kids were in heaven as they heaped up their plates with whatever they wanted (I'm sure the mom's loved me for that...especially right before dinner), and sat in their tiny chairs to feast together. They were having the best time loading and re-loading their plates with their favorite goodies, and refilling their teacups with lemonade. I was actually pretty shocked that all of our cups and saucers made it through the tea party in one piece. John rented a Mad Hatter costume, and played the part well. He was the perfect host. Most the children loved him, and all of them had the chance to sit on his lap for a picture. We played a variety of "tea party" games, some involving giant tea cups, some sugar cubes, etc. The favors were a lot of fun too...took forever, but turned out so cute. We ended up going with small bottles of Gerber juice, with a label and fabric topper, and a tag reading "drink me". For the "eat me", we put a packaged mini muffin inside of a decorative box, and added the tags and ribbon. Overall, I think it was a success. Ruby was definitely in her element as the life of the party and center of attention. She was in complete heaven the entire day, which made all the hard work, money, and time, spent on the party - completely worthwhile.

I'm glad she only has one birthday a year though...she's already making plans for her next party, and I need some time to recover. (Any ideas for a Cinderella party? Sounds kind of boring if you ask me. Hopefully by next year, she will have decided on something else!)