Bitty's Birthday Tea

In true ME fashion, Bitty's birthday party planning began with a minor disaster.  I seem to be in a constant state of semi-crisis, but so far my ship is still afloat.  Leaky, yes, but still on the water.  For now.

So Bitty and I talked for weeks about her birthday - this was a party year for her and she had all sorts of ideas.  Some were bigger, some were smaller, some wildly outrageous.  Finally, to my surprise, she told me she just wanted to take a couple of friends to The Beehive TeaRoom in downtown SLC, which is where we went last year.  Ok, great, no problem - I made some simple little invites and sent them out in a bit of a hurry because as in all things involving ME I was short on time.  A couple of days later I called the Beehive TeaRoom to let them know we would be coming and....oh boy.  Much to my sorrow, the TeaRoom has closed. Forever. I am so sad!  It was such a darling little place.  Along with sadness I instantly felt some serious stress and panic.  The invites had already been sent!  I looked around for a couple of other options but just couldn't find the right fit.  I mean, there's always the Grand America and its High Tea at like $27 a person....eek!  No!  So we decided to just do it on the back porch and expand our circle a bit to include a few more of Bitty's good friends.  After all, my friend offered to let me borrow her eclectic tea set (again - we also used it for a Bundle Birthday) and how hard could it be to make a few cucumber sandwiches and a pot of tea?  Well, like I said, this party involved ME so it of course became way more stressful and complicated than I meant it to.  Why does everything I plan feel like I'm chasing it downhill as it tumbles out of control at an ever increasing size?

Part of the issue was that I didn't bother planning the party around a time where any other adults could really come help me - a couple little girls at a tea shop would be fine, right?  But then with the abrupt change in plans I found myself alone with 8 girls for two hours with a party to host and food to set up and pictures to take.  I was sweating to say the least, but you know, like everything else that I seem to panic about, it turned out fine.  Maybe not picture perfect, but definitely good enough.  And Bitty had a great little birthday.

Bitty ran her own get-to-know-you games to start with

Since I already needed to make a cake for that night, we opted for bakery treats.  

I found these great little tea cups at IKEA for a take-home for each girl.

Show me that dainty pinky finger, girls!

Our attempt at a civilized croquet game lasted about 5 minutes before it dissolved into total chaos and I gave up, sending them inside for a show and tell of their favorite youtube videos until parents arrived and resuced me.

 So the birthday story isn't quite done yet, but the final chapter will have to wait until the next post.