A friend of my mine that moved away a few years back recently moved back to Michigan. Since she was pregnant with her first child when she moved, it was so cool to go to her daughter's *6th* birthday party! Can you believe how time flies?
Her daughter Maddie wanted a dress up tea party. Her mother Angela is super talented at design, and created a beautifully elegant table setting for the 5 girls. I was there to coordinate the games and crafts.
When the girls arrived wearing their party dresses, they were given a fabulous tea hat for them to keep. A basket of accessories was available for the girls to put on gloves, sashes, and necklaces.
Angela used white chair covers with pink organza sashes, white table linens, and a bouquet of fresh pink roses for the centerpiece. A pink necklace was set at each place for the girls to wear. Real china tea cups from Angela's family set were used.
We played a game called "Pass the Parcel." I wrapped a small box with a surprise inside (a bottlecap necklace and a bottle of bubbles) is multiple layers of different colored tissue paper. Written on each layer of paper was a silly thing for the girls to do, such as do the "Macarena" dance. Kind of like musical chairs, I started music, and we all passed the parcel in a circle from one girl to another. When I stopped the music, the girl holding the box unwrapped one layer of paper. The girls then had to do what was written on the box. Once the last layer of tissue paper is unwrapped, the girl holding the box wins the prize inside.
Next, we did a craft project. We headed to the table where I had a charm bracelet craft inside a pink organza sachet. The girls had fun stringing the beads and charms. To secure each bracelet once they were done, I put a small drop of hot glue on the knot.
The girls dined on petite peanut butter and jelly and chicken salad sandwiches cut into small flowers. Petite cupcakes were served for dessert. For drinks, they had the choice of hot chocolate or pink lemonade served in their tea cups.
In addition to the necklaces, tea hats, and charm bracelets, the girls were also able to bring home a tea pot frame craft kit. This is a simple and mess-free craft that uses tea cup, heart and star foam stickers to decorate the tea pot-shaped frame.
Angela was nice enough to send some photos of the party - here they are!
For activities, we had a Baseball beanbag toss game set up. Instead of the usual red and blue bean bags, I bought soft squishy baseballs for the kids to use. There was also a game that had the children throwing colored ping pong balls into red buckets lined up at various distances (ever played the Bozo bucket game at Chuck E. Cheese?) 
The favorite game was the obstacle course. I set up cones to weave through, pillows to jump over, a tunnel to crawl through and a kids basketball hoop to make a basket. The kids did it again and again, asking to be timed to see who went through the fastest.
