Tea for Ten

Maggie turned seven on October 12 and she is waxing philosophical on me. I asked her at the end of the day if she had a good birthday and she said, "Well, it's strange. It's been a good day and I enjoyed my birthday, but I don't really feel older. I mean, it's like all of a sudden I'm seven, and I was six yesterday, but it pretty much feels the same."

She started off the day with an idea I found on Pinterest (but it came from here). I was busily baking blueberry muffins from scratch, as requested, so Grant took care of hanging the streamers. When we do this again for Finn, on his birthday in March, I'd like to put about twice as much streamers on and lower everything on the door frame. Check out the action shot!

 

Birthday packages had been arriving for days and Maggie was thrilled to open them after breakfast.

 One of her favorites was a dress from Grant's Uncle Steve and Uncle James in California, who always pick out fabulous clothes for the kids.

 Her birthday was on Friday, the 12th, but her party was scheduled for the next day, a Saturday. I bought a Living Social deal for a tea party at Savannah Tea Co. in Germantown, just north of downtown. I made the invitations myself with actual tea bags, some vellum paper for the labels/party info, and my eyelet setter.

 The label was folded up to look more like an actual tea bag label, and for ease of mailing. But when the recipient opened up the label, all of the party details were available. I did have to pay 20 cents of extra postage to have each one hand cancelled. I was afraid if it went through the machine sorter, the tea bags would disintegrate.

 I didn't mention it was her birthday because I thought that was a given, but I did receive an e-mail asking if the tea party was celebrating anything in particular. Seriously?!

Our party was inadvertently scheduled for the same weekend as Octoberfest, so it was pretty crazy in the area and parking was a pain, but her friends showed up and we had a great time. The tea house provides gloves, fascinators, and hats for anyone who'd like to dress up. Maggie picked out a hat before anyone arrived, but it didn't last long into the party.

 Another special thing the tea house did was allow each girl to pick out her own tea cup. It was fun to see what everyone chose. I also printed out some coloring sheets of tea pots so that the girls could design their own tea pot to keep busy while we were waiting for the food to come out.

 I love the double thumbs up.

 My mom came with me to help and one of the girl's moms ended up staying. It was a really sweet party. Maggie picked her favorite tea (vanilla chai) and the server suggested chocolate tea for another option. I usually despise tea (yes, I meant to use such a strong word) but I actually drank a cup of the vanilla chai. With the first pots of tea the server brought a mini scone with whipped cream (not clotted!) and a maple shortbread cookie. I don't know why dessert came first but I didn't mind! After a little while she brought out tiered trays with cucumber and dill tea sandwiches, chocolate covered strawberries, fruit, and a few other tasty bites.

This was the first party we've ever done for one of the children where we didn't do anything but show up. We've had a few parties at public parks but we decorated, planned games, and brought in food. If you've been reading this blog for a little while or know me well, you know how much fun I have planning parties, but I have to admit, it was sooooooo nice to just show up, have a party, and then leave without cleaning up. I might be tempted to do another one, but not often.

Check back soon for a post about the joint family party we had at home for Carolina and Maggie!