Mad Hatter Tea Party

   

A couple of months ago, my daughter Annie took it upon herself to memorize the poem "The Jabberwocky." She really loves reading Lewis Carroll. So we began discussing ideas for her 13th birthday party, and when the idea of a mad hatter tea party came up she wouldn't let it go. I personally loved the idea because I already had everything I needed in my party supplies. A giant table: check. Lots if mis-matched chairs: check. Oodles of paper lanterns: double check. 

I kept the table decor simple with a runner down the middle. I borrowed some tea pots from a friend and filled in with some of my own. Hanging over the table I used a lamp shade skeleton and hung vintage playing cards from fishing line to make it appear as if they were cascading down to the middle of the table. 

We filled the cute "drink me" bottles with raspberry lemonade punch (recipe: can of pink lemonade concentrate, bottle raspberry soda, some water and ice).

Aren't my hot air balloon lanterns adorable? My girls also made direction signs for the tree. Because nothing makes sense in Wonderland.

Last minute we decided to do an activity. I quickly scanned Pinterest and found this tutorial to make mini mad hatter hats. 

http://www.desumama.com/mad-hatter-tea-party-hat-tutorial

The girls got so creative and worked on them for almost an hour! They turned out so cute.

Annie's wearing one we had already. We put the hats on headbands and the girls loved them.

Pink lemonade cakes. A bhg recipe I saw last summer and happened to clip and save. Annie actually requested pink lemonade cake so I was excited to finally try the recipe. I actually made six cute little bundts but could only get three out intact. So glad I did backup cupcakes. They were tasty!

Annie leading her friends in "happy birthday."

Teenager parties are so much easier than younger parties. The girls entertained themselves! I even got to go inside and lay down for a bit 😌

                 Happy party planning!

                            Lindsey

Nautical Baby Shower

I know what you're thinking...can she get away from the nautical theme?  And the answer is "no!".  Not when I find adorable vintage nautical fabric at the D.I..  When I found out my friend was expecting a boy, I quickly volunteered to throw the shower.  I love parties, and already had this idea circulating in my head.

My darling friend Becky designed these sweet invitations for me...

I had an adorable life-preserver wreath on my front door to greet guests that said "Ahoy".  This is a picture of the wreath that inspired mine.

The food.  Note the to-die-for fabric that I'm using as a table cloth.  And there's that fun boat dish again.

Isn't it berry cute?

For the cake, I used a yellow box cake mix and made it richer by using butter instead of oil, milk instead of water, and added an extra egg.  Then I made a yummy lemon cream cheese frosting from this recipe.

Can't take credit for the cute napkin idea...stole it from this site.

And these delicious sandwiches were the hit of the party.  Here's where to find the recipe.

I decided to keep the decorations simple, and just did a wall above my entertainment credenza.  We moved our t.v., then used the space for gifts.  My wooden whale stayed up, and I added wooden sailboat I found at D.I. for 75 cents.

I also happened to have a cute little sailor baby outfit in my stash of gifts, and decided that it could double as a decoration.  The picture was just a frame I had...I wrapped some cardboard in nautical paper for the backdrop and added a little "baby" bunting.

I'm not usually a "game" person at showers, but we did play a couple of fun ones that weren't too obnoxious.    And I really wish I had taken photos!  But I was too in the moment.  The first game we cut up photos of the parents to be and created mash-up babies, inspired by this shower.

 

We also did a price-is-right game similar to this:

Posed for a quick photo with the cute movie-star mommy when all was said and done.  This is my "I don't have a double chin" look:)

Happy party planning!

Lindsey