a mad hatter tea party for lyla

We had a whimsical "Lyla in Wonderland" theme for Lyla's 4th birthday.  Here's the invitation that I sent out to about 18 of Lyla's closest girlfriends (16 were able to come).  I ordered these invites from partystarking on etsy.

Travis as the mad hatter, lyla as alice, and me as the queen of hearts.  It was not a costume party, but we decided to dress up as the hosts.  Lyla's dress and my apron both came from lover dovers clothing on etsy.  They are super cute and really amazing quality.  We will totally reuse them for Halloween costumes.  Trav's hat was from village hat shop in san diego.

The table.  This was the central highlight of the mad hatter tea party.  Every little girl had a place setting with her own tea cup and top hat.  The center of the table featured various teapots, pocket watches, and a centerpiece of red roses. 

The show-stopper was definitely the string of colorful paper lanterns that I bought from the paper lantern store. 

The raspberry tablecloth and purple chairs were rented from raphaels in san diego.

Travis painted a welcome sign on posterboard to let everyone know that "We're all MAD here!"  It was accompanied by the white rabbit of course.

We had painted signs to help guests know which way to go.

A small table also greeted guests that resembled the table Alice finds when she tumbles down the rabbit hole.  Sugar cookies featuring sayings like, "eat me", "take one", and "try me" adorned the food table too. 

Cake pops were baked by my dear friend, Melissa.  I added the wilton cake pop flowers that I purchased from Jo-Anns.  I stuck them in a round floral foamcore that I wrapped with green yarn so that it would look like a hedge in the royal garden.

My wonderful mom was in charge of the food table.  We had a variety of tea sandwiches, pigs in a blanket, fruit skewers, and vegetable trays.

3 different flavors of IZZE sparkling sodas were available with "drink me" tags that I printed on cream colored paper.  We put them in this cool vintage ice chest that belonged to Trav's grandmother.

Lyla greeting grandma cheryl and aunt kandice and showing them the way to the party.

I try to keep party games pretty simple.  Especially for a 4-year-olds party.  I figured it would be fun to have a simple craft the kids could do.  We had a hat decorting table where the girls could decorate their top hats with feathers, buttons, and ric rac.

The girls chose which hat dressings they wanted and travis and I hot glued them on to the top hats for them.  I ordered the felt hats from rebel daisy designs on etsy.

The hats turned out super cute!

All 17 girls sitting around the table enjoying their tea.  I used this recipe to make a decaffeinated hibiscus cranberry tea for them.  It got mixed reviews.  Some of the girls loved it and some said it was not so great.  I love how kids will give you their honest opinion.

Lyla's custom ice cream cake creation was from our nearby coldstone creamers.  It was a red velvet cake with layers of cotton candy ice cream.  The icing was chocolate with rainbow sprinkles.  The message on the top said, "Lyla in Wonderland".  In hindsight, I would have ordered a larger cake so that the adults could have eaten it too.  Whoops!  Lesson learned.

My mom passing out cake to all the little girlies.

The grand finale included the flamingo pinata.  I searched everywhere for a pinata that would go with our theme and finally found the pink flamingo online at hobby lobby.

I love watching the little kids trying to hit the pinata.  Their approaches range from ultra timid to freakishly aggressive.  Some are super coordinated and some of their swings are mostly aimed at the crowd.  Yikes!  Pinatas are always a festive (and slightly dangerous) way to end a kids party.

The mad tea party was such a fun concept to let my creativity run wild with.  I only wish that I had more time and money to put into it!  The party planning started about 5 months ago.  It began with a lot of google image searching and browsing through etsy shops.  I had all these grand plans of turning our backyard into the queen of hearts royal court complete with croquet and oversized decks of cards.  But, I had to scale way back when the spending started getting out of control.  My party "budget" was a joke.  I still believe that the party was a hit.  All the kids seemed to enjoy themselves and I know Lyla had the time of her life.  She was just glowing all day.  My sweet little Lyla is now a big 4 year old.  I can't believe how this past 4 years has flown by.  Now that the whirlwind of party planning is over, my first thought is...what should we do for her 5th birthday? 

All photos done by Kata Christian of mukibaba.