Tea Party For Two

As a surprise yesterday, I put dinner together for The Peanut and I as a tea party.  The table was set and waiting for her to come home from school.

And the look on her face was absolutely priceless.  Wish I'd gotten a picture of it.

But I did get pictures of bits and pieces of the table setting for you.  The whole thing took about an hour of my time to throw together from start to finish, and she had a blast having a "tea party" dinner last night.

And so did I.

Since we had her birthday party in an Alice in Wonderland theme last year, we still have all this cute tea party stuff and plush toys.  I used a few of them for table decor -- the flippable Alice/Queen of Hearts dolland a small Cheshire Cat were happy to oblige.

I found that cute little polka dot tea set for less than ten bucks at Target several years ago.  We have played more with that one little set than just about any other toy she has -- and even though it is ceramic, she's never broken one dish.

As you can see, our little kitchen table was covered with fun stuff, mostly with flowers or polka dots on it -- but it looked really adorable altogether.

Here's the whole table in this picture.  I found that doll seat that grips to the table at WalMart a while ago.  I had thought about saving it for Christmas, but decided that Natalie -- the American Girl doll The Peanut got for Christmas last year --  would not want to be left out of the festivities.

I was so right about that, because The Peanut was delighted that she could serve Natalie "just like at the American Girl place in New York City!" where we went for lunch last time we were there.  Since I only paid about $5 for the doll chair, I thought it was a pretty good deal myself.

You can see the doll chair a bit better in this picture.  It's not what I'd call ultra-sturdy, just plastic with a couple of spring rods to grip the table edge, but it worked fine.  It's from the Lillian Vernon doll line that WalMart is carrying now -- guess knock-offs of American Girl are really profitable?  I was just thrilled to find something like this that we could use for the next few years of play time.

She had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, turkey pepperoni and cheese (which she will only eat shredded, not sliced...don't ask), and some oyster crackers along with some applesauce.  Not exactly the world's most nutritious meal, but she loved every bite and asked for seconds.  I scrounged through the lunch drawer and came up with some little cakes for treats afterward, and they disappeared entirely.

That picture of Alice and the Mad Hatter having tea?  It always hangs above the kitchen table at our house.

Guess Momma is as much a kid as The Peanut, huh? 

I actually bought some Alice In Wonderland tea cups and saucers that are china with gilted detailing at the British pavillion in EPCOT last time we were in Disney World.  I love them and use them once in a while on particularly gray days for tea for myself.

Wasn't quite ready to risk them yesterday evening for our little tea party, but that is coming soon, too.  She's getting old enough and careful enough that a tea cup wouldn't get flung around and broken -- but she's still young enough that if it did, it would devastate her (she's a really sensitive kid about that sort of thing).  So we'll give it a little longer and then have a grand tea party with real china cups soon -- in the meantime, the plastic flowered cups from Target work just fine.

The Peanut had a lot of fun.  And so did her momma.

(All these pictures are taken by me.  Please ask before reproducing, and definitely link back here if you do.  At no time is the picture of my child for reproduction.  Thanks!)