January 28th, 2008 by Natalia
So… My daughter, Ash, turned 8 years old yesterday! Saturday, we celebrated with a Mad
Hatter Tea Party in her honor. I have to say that throwing a birthday party in my house with 8 - 7 and 8 year old drama queens was absolutely exhausting! I had NO idea how loud and crazy little girls could be. They are all so well mannered at school in the lunch room when I see them every week. WOW, was I in for a surprise. It was de
finitely a eye opening experience to say the least.. That being said, let me describe to you the whole ordeal.The girls all began showing up around 2. One by one they trickled in and in. It was a dress up party so in attendance we had:
- A Cowgirl/Mermaid complete with a mermaid tail and cowboy boots and hat. (I blurred the faces of the other girls for their privacy.)
- Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz - ruby red slippers and all.
- A couple of princesses
- Alice(Ashton)
- Queen of Hearts- Very cute!
In a desperate effort to occupy their wandering minds, I had a table set up in my kitchen with plastic top hats and all sorts of odds and ends to decorate the hats to their liking.
There were:
- googly eyes
- feathers
- stick on letters
- all sorts of foam shapes.
I expected this activity to take up at least a half hour, but the girls blew right through this and were done in 12 minutes flat. They were ready to explore my house. This one little red head, whom we’ll call “Babbet” went to each picture on my walls and labeled them one by one as, “interesting, like it, or not my thing.” As if I needed her approval for my decor. And if that wasn’t obnoxious enough, she then proceeded to my back door looking for a dog. She was quite put off that we don’t own a dog. She expressed her disgust thoroughly to my mother-in-law.
Anyways… After they finished decorating their lovely top hats, we wrangled them up and herded them toward my dining room table. The table was set up with a tea cup and saucer at each seat. Tea pots were placed around the table within easy reach of these lovely children.
In the center of the table I placed a cute cupcake stand that I made and lined it with the heart shaped cupcakes that I also made. They were cute, if I don’t say so myself. On the menu for the tea party was:
- My cute cupcakes
- Mini Turkey and Cheese sandwiches
- Tiny heart shaped sugar cookies
- Strawberry and Cream cheese rolls
- Various other tea party items
- Cranberry/Limeade Punch in the tea pots
Well, apparently the punch was too sour for Babbet so she expressed this very loudly. She didn’t like it and wasn’t going to drink it(she also “only eats cake and not cupcakes”). Of course the rest of the group chimed in and followed her lead. All of them, except for Ashton, decided they didn’t like their half drank punch any more, either. So, to humor them, I reluctantly added some pineapple juice to sweeten it.
Thinking this too would occupy them for a while, I didn’t plan much in the way of party games. WRONG!!! They inhaled their cupcakes and drank their punch in about 3 minutes and were ready to go play in Ashton’s tiny room. About this time, the sugar kicks in and they are bouncing off the walls. They are literally walking across my furniture and dancing on my coffee table. They are so excited that they are body slamming each other and screeching at the top of their lungs.. By this time it’s only abut 230 and the party isn’t over until 4. So in another desperate attempt to keep our sanity, I break out the UNO cards. My mother and grandmother helped me gather them around the coffee table and we played UNO. Well, Babbet, decided she didn’t want to play because she, “doesn’t DO cards.” Remember those cupcakes she didn’t like? Well while the rest of the group was playing cards, she was in the other room putting them away. She ate 5 of my “NASTY” cupcakes! We played 2 really loud rounds of UNO and they were DONE sitting still.
They insisted it was time for Ashton to open her gifts.They all made a mad dash to the living room and gathered around Ashton’s gifts like vultures waiting for a sick animal to die. They got into a huge screeching tiff over who was going to sit by Ashton and which gift she would open first. I took control and settled them down and designated the gift order. Ashton opened her gifts while her guests sat on each other and punched each other and acted like a bunch of baboons! One little girl that was sitting next to Ashton kept sniffing each envelope and letting Ashton know whether or not to expect money. She said she could smell the cash. She was cute! On the other hand, Babbet complained the whole time that she couldn’t see. I’m pretty sure that this girl lives a miserable existence because NOTHING was ever right for her. She wasn’t happy the whole time. God bless her mother…
After opening her last gift I decided that I wanted to get a cute picture of the girls on the floor with their heads in a circle.
I got my picture and it still wasn’t 400 yet. So we played several games until they started leaving.
It was finally 400! I survived! Ashton said goodbye and sent her friends on their merry way, with a goody bag in the shape of a giant tea bag. All of them were gone and I could finally sit down and breathe, no wait, one remained and it was 430. Then I got a phone call from her mom saying she was stuck in traffic. How do you get stuck in traffic on Saturday. She said, “my mom’s got the worst luck with traffic. She’s always getting stuck in it, everywhere she goes.” Ashton said, “that sounds familiar, same with my daddy. “I learned several things Saturday:
- A group of little girls is a very scary thing to bring into your house
- Always PLAN more games than you think you will need - you will need something to keep them busy so they don’t tear your house apart
- Some people are never happy
- You can smell money through envelopes
- AND… Next year, we will have a quiet dinner and movie with ONE friend for a birthday celebration.
It was one MAD tea party for sure!
