Simple Tea Party for Toddlers

My little girl turned two this week and we celebrated with a very simple tea party. With items from the Dollar Store and Goodwill, I put together a pretty, yet inexpensive, party with a handful of her friends.

I have been waiting to throw her a tea party since we learned that we were expecting a little girl– exciting news after two boys. While I really enjoy throwing parties centered around tools and featuring a lot of dinosaur fun, it was a lot of fun to add doilies, fresh flowers, and pretty things to my party planning this time.

While I generally enjoy cooking from scratch, I was just fine to keep things simple by buying all of the party food for the kids to enjoy. I even splurged on a dozen fancy, delicious, cupcakes from a local bakery.

The day before the party I collected together all the tea sets, fancy dishes and accessories I had stashed away. After a quick run to the dollar store for doilies, a plastic tablecloth, and some party jewelry, it was time to decorate. A friend came over and together we arranged the dishes so they would be pretty and yet accessible to little hands.

Most of the dishes have been collected from Goodwill, though the beautiful the set in the middle belonged to my daughter’s great-grandmother from Italy.

I always like to be able to send our guests home with something useful that they will enjoy when possible. In the past, I’ve made tool belts, dinosaur tails, train hats, and t-shirts for guests. For this tea party, I made each girl a placemat with her name and little girl on it.

The placemats were unfinished (I ran out of time), but that turned out to be for the best since I made them into something different after the party was over.

No sewing was required, I simply cut the pieces and attached them with iron-on adhesive. The name pieces were made using simple hand embroidery.

Along with the placemats, I put together little boxes of play jewelry and a small bubble wand. Honestly, my sons enjoyed this as much as the girls did.

We did not do any party games, but instead just let the kids eat and play. The girls found my daughter’s dress-up stash, everyone enjoyed our little trampoline, and the balloons were a hit too, of course.

My daughter had prettier party clothes, but true to form, she insisted on choosing what she wore. This is a very characteristic Molly face right now too. 

We gave the boys the option of skipping the party to play LEGOs and have a picnic in their room. But a party is a party, and they did not want to miss the fun. They brought a little boy energy to the party and it was fun to watch them battle with their blow-up boxing gloves.

 When the party was over and all the things were cleaned up, I made the placemats into pretty wall art for each girl. All I needed was an embroidery hoop and about ten minutes for all of them.

Pretty, useful, and inexpensive party favors! My favorite.

And that was it! Last night we threw an impromptu party for my husband’s father’s 70th birthday. Homemade banner, apple pie, balloons, and lots of love.

Next up is my middle son’s birthday. He’s turning 4 and couldn’t be more excited. I am excited about trying to execute some of the ideas I have bouncing around in my head. He’s asked for a Star Wars party. Jedi’s, lightsabers, Darth Vader… the works.

How do you keep your kids’ parties simple? 

Do you like to pick a theme or just focus on getting together with friends and family?

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