Mad Hatters Tea Party

26th March 2016
Willow in Wonderland - Mad Hatters Tea Party

Willow was turning four and I wanted her to have a special party that she could help with also.
  After looking around the internet for ideas we decided on one of her favourite books 'Alice in Wonderland'.
We got the movie out and looked for ideas.
The list was huge, Willow had so many ideas and so we got planning.

With our party plan sorted we started once a week going to fairs and op shops looking for old tea pots and mad cups for everyone.
A guest list was written up and invites sent out.  Everything was going to plan.
This was very exciting planning with my little girl.

Invitation

Decorations

After watching the movie we knew we could use lots of cards, red roses and teapots. 

We waited till the week after Valentines day and got bunches of plastic red roses for $1.00 a bunch instead of $20.00.  With the cards we made little soldiers for the tables and my sons made card banners for the gazebo to decorate with.  We had little drink me metal charms that were scattered on the tables.  As it was Easter time we found Easter Crackers with the White Rabbit on them that the kids loved.  At an op shop Willow found a green caterpillar that we sat on a garden mushroom ornament.  We found lots of flamingos and made some of our own signs.  Everything was bright and looked 'a-ma-zing', as Willow would say :)

    

    

Queens Croquet
It wouldn't be a Mad Hatter Tea Party without a good game of Croquet.
My hubby and I spent a few nights putting this game together.
Four croquet mallets, balls, Alice characters and the Queens guards as croquet hoops.
The kids all loved playing it and even a few of the parents enjoyed having a go as well :)

Food & Drinks at the Tea Party

With over 60 guests arriving I needed to make the food fun but easy to get out for everyone to eat without spending too much time in the kitchen.  Pinterest was fantastic for ideas. 

Willow loved making the queens guards with me out of rice bubbles, cupcakes with white and red roses, eat me biscuits, and of course the cake.  I usually order a cake for my kids birthdays, so much easier but this time I thought I would give it a go myself.  After nearly a whole day in the kitchen I think I will go back to ordering, no stress that way.  I'm no cake decorator but was quite pleased with how it turned out in the end. 

For drinks we had to have teapots full of tea, two drink containers with
 'This drink will make you taller and this drink will make you shorter'.
Guests had a choice of lots of mad sized cups.  Some kids filled their drinks up once into huge soup sized cups while others used little tiny cups.  The kids loved this.  

Tea Party

After all the kids had made hats for the Tea Party, food was served.  I loved seeing all the happy kids eating all the party food and chatting away to each other.  They were pulling crackers and laughing.  

 Cake

I decorated Willow's cake this year, definitely not a cake maker but was quite pleased at how it turned out.   All Willow's friends and family sang Happy Birthday to her which she loved and then she blew out the candles.  The cake was a delicious Orange Zest Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese frosting made by my brother Brad.

 Games

We played a few games - Pass the Parcel, Tea Cup Pinata, Unlock the Tiny Door to Wonderland (Treasure Hunt), Pin the Grin on the Cheshire Cat and also the kids created Mad Hats for the tea party.

Making Mad Hatter's Hats for the Tea Party
I put heaps of crafts out on the the driveway.  Kids all chose a hat each and had so much fun decorating them.

Lots of amazing hats - Looking great for our Mad Hatter's Tea Party.

Pass the Parcel
The top layer had a picture of Alice.  The last layer was the Queen of Hearts.  
We had 28 kids so made 30 layers so all the young ones could at least open one layer each.

Pin the Grin on the Cheshire Cat
 This was a game I made.  I got a cat printed onto poster paper and laminated 30 Grins.  We had two games going - one for Under 5s and the other for the older kids.  The younger ones got to choose if they wanted to be blindfolded or not.

Tea Pot Pinata.  

I made this a few weeks earlier and filled it with lots of sweets.  I made a few more layers than usual so the older kids didn't break it too quickly.

Treasure Hunt
Open the small door to Wonderland

I collected spare keys from everyone I knew for a few months and put cheap key rings on them.  They were hidden around the property.  Raukura found the winning key that opened up the small door to Wonderland. 

I was really surprised how excited the kids, especially the little girls, who loved trying to open the padlock.

Loot Bags and Prizes

I brought lots of little charms from Aliexpress and a roll of chain.  Then one night sat down and made all the little girls White Rabbit necklaces.  I loved how they turned out. Willow helped me wrap them in tissue and put them into little pink bags for the girl's loot bags.  Boys were given a variety of things from joke prizes, hot wheel cars, books and sweets and the babies were all given little treats also.

Prize for Pass the Parcel - Alice in Wonderland Hard Covered Book, Alice Colouring In Book and Pencils.

My kids helped me make little Eat Me Tags and fill bags with Jelly Beans.  Kids were given these if their keys didn't open the padlock to open the little door.

Thank You

  A huge thank you to all Willow's friends and family that came and made her day so magical. 

She loved dressing up as Alice, playing croquet and having everyone around home for the afternoon.

And a massive thank you from Willow for all the presents. 

She is one extremely lucky little girl who loved everything she was given xxx

To all Willow's best friends.... you are the best!!!!

Larissa, Raukura, Hope, Holly, Lacey, Bella-Rose,  Atawhai, Elsie, Charlotte, Amber, Ava, Grace, Kyra

Hunter, Harry, Ryan, Liam, Levi, Dryw, Jamal, Leroy, Austin, Keegan, Levi, Geordan, Finn

Mum and Dad love you so much Willow.

You have grown into the most amazing daughter we could ever have imagined having.

You light up our lives and we hope that being four will be one of the best years ever.

xxx