Wonderland Tea Party!

Miss H has reached her Sweet 16 milestone.


To celebrate, we hosted a Loli Inspired "Wonderland Tea Party".
She didn't want anything quite as literal as the book or movies. I wanted to make it memorable. We compromised with a party that gave the definite impression of Wonderland with the fun, but without the excess strangeness.
The guests arrived and were ushered upstairs to the Lavender Fox Boutique to change into lovely tea appropriate attire. (If they didn't come "predressed".)
First on the list of festivities....a photo shoot!Of course, the Cheshire Cat had to make an appearance. Who could resist all the attention?Oh dear! I haven't properly introduced the ladies....So, left to right in the picture below....Miss O, Miss H(the birthday girl), Miss B, and Miss G.
This was a proper English tea with a dash of Wonderland impropriety thrown in for good measure.Miss H was tickled to have all her favorite fancy cookies. Mrs. Dormouse doesn't usually buy them due to her extreme frugality.The tea sandwiches were well received....chicken salad with a hint of garlic and pepper, and ranch flavored cream cheese, spinach, cucumber, and bell pepper.Tea time....
The little white heart shaped boxes held the party favors, dainty velvet chokers....I had several colors of velvet ribbon. With the addition of clasps and a crown charm with a bead at the bottom, they were perfect! I had picked up the heart boxes several years ago on clearance for 20 cents a piece. The ribbon came from a garage sale in a mixed bag of goodies for 50 cents/bag. I paid a total of $3 for the clasps and charms from Michaels....on clearance. There were 8 sets of clasps, and 8 crown charms in each package. The colored beads were rolling around my craft supplies too. So, party favors(including the box) = about 45 cents apiece.
The second round of party favors came in the form of lip gloss. I found a package of 4 lip gloss tubs after Christmas last year on clearance for 50 cents. I bought 2. On the same shopping trip, I found lip gloss packaged like those tablets of gum you pop out of the foil. The price.....10 cents each. I bought 6. Each girl chose 2 tubs and 1 or 2 packets of lip gloss for the secondary favor. The total for these....$1.60 or 12 cents apiece. The packets had a glaring 8+ warning on the front, so I glammed it up with a sparkly heart sticker....much better.
Mrs. Dormouse was the hostess who gave a primer on proper tea etiquette to start the celebration.
The tea selection was varied and complimented with sugar hearts, lemon slices, and/or whole milk. Individual English trifles were gobbled down quite quickly. These were made with strawberry cake & fresh strawberries, white cake & blueberries, and chocolate cake with a hint of cinnamon & rasberries, and of course every layer was generously slathered with pink whipped cream!

The White Rabbit, Mad Hatter(apparently just back from the tropics), and the March Hare(sans his ears) crashed the party!
Aha! The March Hare informed me the White Rabbit had given him a tea which made his ears invisible! Maybe Mrs. Dormouse should hide the magic tea more carefully next time.The Mad Hatter, the White Rabbit, and the Cheshire Cat are often seen whispering and laughing about this, that, or the other thing. Hmmmm, it seems that cat has disappeared again....The White Rabbit convinced the girls to try some of his "refreshing elixir".
Hmmmm, maybe not such a smart move, little ladies. Well, they all lit out for adventure and stumbled upon the picnic tea that Mrs. Dormouse had set up for the Red Queen and the White Queen.Of course, the Queens weren't attending after all. They had another arguement. Sigh. So, Mrs. Dormouse invited the girls to indulge.The tea towels were quite large enough to accomadate two young ladies at once!Of course, since this picnic was set for two, the girls had to share. The White Rabbit was kind enough to supply straws.Food fit for a Queen(or two). Lemon bars, cheese toast, giant lollipops, and of course...extra large sugar cubes.Each of the young ladies was fascinated with the idea of drinking from the Queen's cup! And really, how often does it happen that you are half your normal size AND attending a picnic tea meant for a Queen?Once everyone had gorged on giant food and tea, they settled in and relaxed.It seems those naughty rabbits were sneaking up on the ladies. Trying to snag a morsel or two for themselves, I shouldn't wonder.And, photographic evidence of the White Rabbit's trickery in action! I believe he is handing out heart shaped, pink frosted, magic cakes. No doubt they say "Eat Me", or some other nonsense. That silly rabbit is always up to something! Not long after this picture was taken, I asked the ladies to come in for their dessert tea.Here is a peek at the divine tablescape for the dessert tea. There are strawberry and chocolate pocky, chicken salad sandwiches, lemon bars, pink frosted cupcakes, banana bread hearts, and more cheese bread. Of course, since this is Wonderland AND an English dessert tea course, it was only fitting to serve Irish Breakfast tea!Well, imagine Mrs. Dormouse's surprise when the the White Rabbit led the girls in for tea...And they were too far overgrown!!! Well, a good tea must not be wasted. Tall or small, it all tastes delightful.The ladies toasted the White Rabbit, March Hare, Mad Hatter, Cheshire Cat, and Mrs. Dormouse for a lovely afternoon of Wonderland fun...and a truly Mad tea party!Cheers!


P.S....After Mrs. Dormouse came to the rescue with more elixir, everyone returned to their normal, dainty size.

P.S.S.....Here are all three sizes of sugar cubes. Large cubes, medium hearts, and small dots. Tinted various shades of pink, of course!

Hop over to "Tea Time Tuesday" at the Rose Chintz Cottage to find more tea related goodness.