It's been a few years since we've had a "friend" birthday party for any of the kids (minus last year when we had the S family over for the twins' birthday . . . but they are framily so I don't think it counts!). Brianna has really missed her friends. Out of all the kids, I think she has taken the changes of the past year the hardest. She hated when school suddenly ended because she didn't know how her friends were doing. And, while homeschooling has been great for her in many ways, I think she misses the classroom setting more than her siblings do.
With that said, when Bri asked to have a few friends over for her birthday this year, I thought it was a great idea. I don't think she was thinking of a party, but just having some girls over to hang out. However, I asked her what she would think about hosting a tea party for her friends, and she loved the idea!
We had initially planned to have the "par-tea" on the Saturday following Bri's birthday. That was also on the very tail end of all the crazy winter weather we had, so we decided to postpone the party for one week to Saturday, February 27th. I wanted to keep it fairly small, so Bri and I came up with a guest list that included six girls. It was all pretty casual (especially compared to some of the parties we've had in the past), and I just sent a text message to the moms of the girls we wanted to invite.
I heard back from everyone pretty quickly, and we were thrilled that all six girls were going to be able to attend the party! On Friday, Bri and I kicked party prep into high gear and got everything ready for tea time on Saturday.
We had all sorts of yummy treats we served with the tea. This included mini cupcakes, mini lemon muffins, fruit, fig newtons, powdered donuts, vanilla wafers, pinwheels, small ham and cheese sandwiches, and a cheese and cracker tray.
We left up some decorations we had used on Bri's birthday a few weeks prior to this, and also made our table look pretty for our guests.
Each place had a teacup, saucer, and small spoon from two tea sets I have (one from my grandma and one from Ukraine). We also had little place cards with each girl's name.
Decorating was pretty simple. I used some tulle to gussy up my vases and the chairs the girls sat in. After adding a few fresh flowers, everything looked lovely!
We didn't do cake and candles, but I did put an "11" in the powdered donuts, haha!
I wanted to have a few activities for the girls to do after drinking tea and eating yummy treats. The first activity was a How Well Do You Know the Birthday Girl? questionnaire that had ten questions about Brianna. It was a fun little way to engage the girls, and it was the source of some good laughter! Once that was completed, we did a craft where we put contact paper shapes on plain white cards and painted around the shape with Q-tips. After the paint dried, we peeled off the contact paper and were left with a cute little design!
Our guests included Kyrie (from running team), Aryn (Abi's sister), Abi (from school), Kennedy (from school), Avery (from church), and Chloe (cousin). At the very beginning of the party, I asked each girl to share their name, their age, and how they know the birthday girl. I thought this might be a good way to break the ice. Some girls were kind of shy about it, but they had no problems visiting and laughing and having a good time with each other once the party got going.
Brooke and Brecklyn were also very excited about this party. I wanted to give Brianna some time and space with her friends, so I had the twins sit at the bar. They didn't mind at all as long as they got food, haha!
We also invited G-Jo to join us, and she sat at the bar with the little girls. I didn't mention this above, but I served punch along with the tea. All the girls liked the punch really well. Most of them didn't care for the tea :-).
Concentrating on their painting project
When I sent the invitation text, I said that we would be dressing "fancy" for fun. I didn't know if the girls would really embrace this or not, but as you can see in the photos, they did! I love that they're still "little girl" enough to think dressing up is fun.
Avery, Brianna, Chloe, Kennedy, Kyrie, Aryn, and Abi
Rebekah (Avery's mom) stayed to visit and help during the party (I had invited any mom to stay that wanted to), so she took this photo for us. I thought it turned out so good!
After we had finished eating and completed the activities I had planned, Kyrie asked Brianna if she would take them on a tour of our house. The tour ended with all the girls going outside to see the backyard, then promptly kicking off their dressy shoes and chasing each other around in their dresses! It made us laugh so much to look out in the yard and see them all running in their bare feet!
The party had started at 3:30pm, and by about 5:30pm parents started coming to get their girls. It was a great length . . . long enough for the girls to have a good time together, but no so long that they found mischief or got bored. Of course, I think all the girls would have stayed longer if they could!
Chris and Bren - who were sure to be gone by the time the girls started arriving for the party - got home as the guests were leaving. Chris helped me clean up the kitchen while Bren promptly stuffed his face with all the left-over goodies! Bren had said he was sooo glad he didn't have to stay for the par-tea, but he sure didn't mind eating up the food from the event, lol!
Overall, the par-tea was pretty low-key, but all the girls had a wonderful time. I'm so glad we were able to do it . . . it made me really miss hosting gatherings! Brianna told us thank you several times for having the party, and it was worth it to see her be able to love on her friends a bit. They were such a sweet group of girls, and it was a joy to have them in our home!
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