Tea for Three: Clara’s Third Birthday

We celebrated Clara’s third birthday back in March. Our sweet girl has grown so much over the past year. She is such an amazingly kind little person. She has so much to say and is insanely curious (and therefore asks a lot of questions). She loves pretending and has such a big imagination.

When I asked her what type of party she wanted this year, she was very specific – “a party with my babies, and I wear a dress.” I knew she was talking about her Mooshka dolls, but I had no idea how to incorporate them into a theme for her party. I eventually decided on a tea for three theme and tried to come up with foods that seemed appropriate for a tea party.

The party menu included:
Smithfield ham biscuits
Chicken salad croissants
Fruit salsa with cinnamon pita chips
Pimiento cheese and pepper jelly phyllo cups
Cucumbers with Boursin cheese
Deviled strawberries
Confetti cupcakes

Vanilla bean lemonade
Lemon blueberry sweet tea

We also had sugar cookies and different colors of vanilla bean frosting (the same used for the cupcakes) for the guests to decorate.

Like the previous two years, I designed Clara’s invitations and had them printed locally. I loved last year’s invitation so much that I stuck with a similar concept for this one. The banner on this invitation is on the boxes that Mooshka dolls come in, and I also took inspiration from it to make a banner to decorate the wall behind the food table.

The Mooshka website has lots of printable coloring pages, so I used the many paper dolls Clara has accumulated to make favors for the party guests. I melted crayons in heart shaped silicone molds and used glue dots to attach them to the paper dolls. These were simple and so, so adorable. I rolled up the coloring pages and put everything into little treat bags.

I also used the paper dolls to make labels for the food. I was really proud of this, especially because it came about accidentally. I was making pinwheels for the party when I realized I could use half of one to help the dolls stand up and “hold” a sign with the name of each food on it.

We were so thankful Aunt Crystal could celebrate with us again. She snapped this photo of me and my girl during the party and was, as always, a huge help while we were preparing the night before.

It’s crazy to think three years have gone by since Clara was born, and we feel so incredibly happy to have her in our lives. She’s one special girl.