A Doll and Me Tea Party

Much to the grandma’s delight – these birthday pictures are finally making their way into shareable internet land.

I sorta had a computer picture storage overload problem – I guess 50,000 high res pics can do that to a machine. Oops. 

So after thinking all were lost, and sobbing my eyes out and praying imprecatory psalms on all creatures great and small and basically denouncing all things good and pure, my sister came to my rescue. Man. Pregnancy hormones are no joke!

And let me know they weren’t lost afterall. 🙂

Love my sister.

So here it is – a lovely tea party for my little six year old Kami and her friends.

All 14 of them. And their 15 dolls.

Smallest house we’ve ever lived in. Biggest indoor bday party we’ve ever thrown.

The more the merrier, right? 🙂

It was also one of the cheapest. I utilized the dollar store’s baby girl shower section and pulled off some pretty frugal hacks to make this an American Girl doll party – without the American Girl prices.

Upon arrival, every girl got a tea hat, some pearls, and a pink bow for their dolls. (hats, $1 each, Target. There weren’t any left for Easter. But Philly people don’t wear hats for Easter anyway, right?  So it all worked out ok that I took them all. 🙂 Mini pink Bows, Dollar Tree, $1 for 20.)

Each doll had their own little treat boxes to take home their special surprises. (Which were, one pack of baby hair clips  – 50 on a sheet – for $1, courtesy of Dollar Tree. They also had a special craft that was added to these boxes later.) I got the doll’s names from the mamas the week of the party so they could all have their own name tags and keep them all straight too.  (Mini pink boxes, Dollar Tree, $1/12 pack.)

The dolls even got their own cupcakes. I asked though, and they said none of them were hungry! So they all shared with their girl mommies. 🙂

I pulled out my grandmother’s china, some china from a friend, my wedding china, and a new tea set that my girls gave me for Christmas. We had just enough for everyone! And believe it or not, three, four, and five year old little girls are fantastic with china.

After a delicious lunch (of which I didn’t get many pics of the food – I was rather busy. With the 15 dolls. And their 14 mommies…), we made some jewelry for the dolls.  Another frugal hack – making jewelry for the dolls meant we were making tiny necklaces. It took 3 packs of beads, one pack of elastic string, and only about 15 minutes. Most of the girls stayed super engaged – even the younger ones. And I was so thankful for my husband and my neighbor who stuck around to help tie all those tiny necklaces together. 🙂 The girls put their doll’s necklaces in their doll’s treat boxes to take home with them later.

It ended up being quite the party. But we made some beautiful memories. And that’s what I wouldn’t trade for anything.