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Alice In Wonderland Party -16yr- Tea in the Park

January 2009

Ella in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Special Mention

Ella in Wonderland I recently turned 16 and as its kind of a big deal I really wanted to go out of my way to hold a lovely big birthday party. And as Alice in wonderland is my favourite book I thought yes this sounds like a good theme for me. To begin with I got organized and made lists with categories like food, invites, guest list, games, party favours and decorations.

My invites read Don't Be Late! For a Very Important Date.    It's going to be great! If you're feeling quite mad, we'll make you right glad. Come in foolish Attire For all to admire. You can act silly or smarty for it's YOUR unbirthday party.  Meet us in wonderland _______________ (address) On ____________________________ (date) At ________________________ (time) Come as one of Alice's friends she's added a list to help you think quick, so hurry or the queen will give the flick  The White rabbit requests you RSVP by __________ (date - 3 days before the party).  As for costumes nearly all of my guests dressed up they looked fantastic, I went as alice of course! My mother was queen of hearts my twin sisters were none other than twiddle dee and twiddle dum! And my dads friend was the mad hatter!! (he's an artist so his costume was amazing !!!) 

I then chose a place to hold it, which turned out to be a nice big park in my city, which was perfect because it has lots and lots of rose bushes and a statue of Alice! Which was amazingly ideal!  To decorate we started with the table, we borrowed two long trestle tables from my mother's work and a few really cool high backed armchairs from the prop shop at my dads work. To make the setting look a little mad and miss-matched we borrowed the rest of the chairs from my neighbors and grandma as well as our own dining chairs (we also used a really big old rocking chair we had in the house people loved that), we sat the chairs around the table so that hight differed around the table, the fancy prop chairs were placed at each end of the table (I had about 38 guests so we placed 18 chairs on each side and then the two on either end).

We then laid a piece of long white fabric across the two tables so that it looked like one giant table, down the centre of the table I placed the second hand tea pots we had brought from thrift shops for about three to four dollars each   I had six altogether so I evenly placed them so there was three on each table a fair distance from the join in the two tables in the very centre of the table (on the join) was a huge tower of cards that we hot glue gunned together it was surrounded by some red crepe paper roses. In the gapes between the teapots I placed the miniature rose bushes that was made by sticking an old stick from the garden in to a small terracotta pot and a foam ball that we covered in crepe paper leaves and white crepe paper roses I painted the white roses in red food colouring just on the edges so it seeped in and gave them the look of been half painted (personally I thought they looked great!) we had a few pots left over so we filled them with soil and planted some old bent crooked forks and spoons that we also found at the thrift shop (they were a bargain at a dollar a hand full) we just had these randomly scattered on the table we also had a tea and coffee table a little away from the main table(there was hot water and small children! We didn't want any accidents!) So we put some on that table to.

We choses a glade that was kind of privet to hold the party and their was a path you had to go up to get to it so at the start of the path we dug a pretty deep hole (we kept the soil in a bucket and put it back after wards) and stuck a sign on a stake that pointed down and read to wonderland.  For croquet I read this amazing idea online so we copied it I cant remember the site.. But this is the idea  I made the mallets by screwing a wood dowel into an empty tin can, covered the can in hot pink felt & hot-glued goggle eyes, pink feathers & an orange foam beak to the can to resemble a flamingo.This was a hit and they worked fantastically for the balls we purchased a whole bunch of plush hedgehog puppets and stuffed tennis balls in to the hand bit then we sowed them up, they worked ok though I suggest using normal balls! But then again it just adds to the challenge I suppose!

In the end all they decorations were as stated bellow Cutlery pot plants, Card displays, Playing card streamers, Fairy lights    Bubble machine which we borrowed from mothers work, Sparklers, a Toy rabbit, Fake rose bushes, crepe paper flowers, Old miss-matched chairs, Lots of old cushions, Garden mushrooms  Balloons/helium, Cheshire cat grin in a tree, Giant lolly pops with googly eyes, signs with 'this way', 'that way', 'up', 'down', etc and the rabbit hole oh and we cut out some big cards for playing croquet.

As for food we had a wide selection  Banana cake,  Cup cakes, Jam tarts, Lollies, Jelly, Cookies, Sandwiches, Chocolate cake, Lemonade, Tea pots filled with soft drink, Coloured popcorn Scones Pikelets Hard boiled eggs painted like humpty dumpty Marshmallows Nuts Cocktail sausages Strawberries Fruit juice Cordial Oranges Toffee apples Fairy floss Mushroom meringue Mushroom cup cakes Apple pie  Strawberries and dipping chocolate conversation hearts.  Small sandwiches cut out in the shapes of hearts, spades, clubs, and diamonds Cup cakes with plastic icing centre pieces like mad hats caterpillars, mushrooms and flowers, we also made bread and butter flies out of those mini toast things and a stick of butter we stuck on edible paper eyes they were pretty cute.

For games we played clean cup pin the grin of the Cheshire cat, hat decorating  (We just used plain white pointy paper party hats and set out feathers plastic jewels sequins and other varies stuff everyone of all ages got in to that one the prizes were given out to the most creative, the prettiest, the most elaborate and so on) The Queen Says played like Simon Says. Pass the tea pot played like pass the parcel   We also had card sets and chessboards just lying on the tables you'd be surprised on how many people actuary played with them! It was great  

For prizes we gave out Teacups filled with goodies then wrapped in clear plastic the goodies were all Alice related Card packs Rabbit ears, miniature top Hats, Roses, Flamingo statue, glasses.  

For my cake my mother made a three tired (sp?) topsy turvy cake, its bottom layer was decorated like a hat its middle like a croquet match with cards and flamingos and its top (which was my favourite and another idea we borrowed from the internet) was a rabbit hole and it looked like Alice had gone head first into it with her legs sticking out it was sooo cute!  When all the guests left we gave out little unbirthday boxes  Little boxes wrapped like birthday presents with bows all stacked in a pyramid with names on them Each containing A tiny piece of a tea set  Some tea bags  Sugar cubes Tiny top hat  A copy of the Alice in Wonderland storybook.   I had an amazing birthday and I hope all this helps you have a fantastic one to!  P.s I did this extremely cheaply it was all borrowed homemade of previously owned

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