Disney Princess Tea Party

Oh man, the Disney Princess Tea Party that I had this past weekend was SO awesome. The idea came to me while I was shopping for craft supplies on Oriental Trading and got completely inundated with Disney Princess stuff. To that I say, well played Oriental Trading, you DID convince me to buy your products!

I took this program on with my coworker, Andrea, and it's a good thing I did because it was a LOT of work, particularly a lot of set-up. Here is an example of that:

When the kids walked in, they were immediately drawn to our food display (seen above). No tea party is complete without pots of tea (Arizona iced, in this case), tea sandwiches (cheese and jelly), and pastries (or mini cupcakes with pink sugar crowns). We also served cookies and water. More on this later.

Before the kids could eat, we had other princessly duties to attend to. First, story time. Andrea and I settled on a non-Disney story, mainly because all the Disney princess stories that we'd found were long and sort of mediocre. The winning book was Falling For Rapunzel by Leah Wilcox, an all-time favorite for both of us. While I'd never tried this book with kids this age before (I think of it as being for grades K-2), they all totally got it and enjoyed it! It worked!

After story time, it was time for the princesses (and one prince) to make their crowns. We kept things on the sanitary side, since we were serving food, and just did straight up stickers. No markers, no gluing, no nonsense. We used these foam tiaras from Oriental Trading and these Hearts & Flowers Self-Adhesive shapes also from Oriental Trading. Originally I'd planned on including gems as well, but Andrea talked me out of it so we could avoiding using glue, which was totally smart.

So I'll say it again because I really mean it: Skipping glue and markers when serving food was basically genius. We got to avoid a whole mess (pun intended!) of hand washing nonsense. Such a smart move, Andrea!

Here are a few kids working on their crowns:

And here are a few of our princesses in their completed crowns:

Also on the table were two Disney Princess stickers for each kid (these from Oriental Trading)... a party favor!

Once most of the crowns were completed, it was time to play Give Tinkerbell her Wand (aka Pin the Tail on the Donkey). We purchased two of this set from Oriental Trading. Each set came with 8 self-adhesive wands so, while we only needed one of the poster part, we needed two sets of wands in order to accommodate a larger group (we had 12 kids [11 girls and 1 boy] in total).

Here they are playing. Why do kids always cheat at these blindfold games!? Why do I continue to play them!?

Then it was (finally) snack time! Seen below, first, are our cupcakes (from Stop & Shop--a mix of vanilla with chocolate frosting, vanilla with vanilla frosting, chocolate with chocolate frosting, and chocolate with vanilla frosting), topped with pink and purple candy crowns (from Michaels) and lined up nicely on this cupcake stand from Michaels. Second are American cheese sandwiches cut with a cookie cutter into flowers--or possibly suns; the jury is still out. And last, there are (grape) jelly sandwich cut with a cookie cutter into hearts.

We also had water bottles, pre-packaged cookies, and Arizona iced tea served from fancy tea pots. The table clothes are these from Oriental Trading, the plates are these from Oriental Trading, and the napkins are these from Oriental Trading. The cups are dixie cups from a dollar store in Georgia that Andrea picked up while visiting her sister! Lucky find!

Here are some kids enjoying their tea party snacks:

What worked least: Sometimes serving food gets chaotic. This isn't newsworthy or even unexpected--more just like, a necessary evil when food is served. Anyone have any tips for making this more organized? I am very, very open to hearing them!

What worked best: I think the highlight of this program, for me, was the costumes. I put "costumes encouraged" in my newsletter description of the event and 9 out of 12 kids arrived in Halloween-caliber Disney dresses. I think there's just something about doing all these things--hearing a story, making a craft, playing a game, eating a snack--while in costume, that makes a library program extra fun and special. 

Fun anecdote: One mom (not a regular) asked me how often we do this. I said, "This?" She nodded. "This exact program?" I asked. She nodded again. I said, "This is the first time!" To that, she suggested making it annual! Maybe we will! 

American Girl Tea Party

Hi from the world of still being out on disability. I am so upset about missing one of my most-anticipated programs at work this week... especially since I did so much work ahead of time to make it awesome. Thursday evening is our American Girl Tea Party and I can't be there!

I did an American Girl Tea Party once in the past when I worked (briefly) nearby at the Brentwood Public Library. It was this program's success that inspired me to do it again with the kids at Huntington. So, in honor of Thursday's American Girl Tea Party, I've decided to blog about my Brentwood-version of this program, as well as the changes I made when updating and adapting this program for Huntington.

First, let me say that Brentwood Library had one distinct advantage over Huntington: A collection of five historical American Girl dolls that the library received as a gift (Addy, Kit, Kaya, Josefina, and Kirsten) plus two Girl of the Year dolls on loan from one of our generous pages (Marisol and Jess). These were the perfect photobooth prop and the kids were so excited to sit with and admire these dolls.

I have a photobooth planned for Huntington also, but there will be no doll collection to accompany it.

Here is the Brentwood photobooth all set up:

Also pictured: the adorable tea set I used to serve iced tea to the kids. When it was snack time, I passed one tea set out per table and the kids really used them to drink from! It was fun!

We ordered different, ceramic teapots for the Huntington version of this program and accompanied them with pink, paper cups. I think either way, it's fun to pour a spot of tea from a teapot, yes?

Anyway, I told the kids to get up and use the photobooth whenever they wanted. This was kind of only half-true because I can't physically take their photo in the photobooth if I'm in the middle of helping another child with a craft or passing out snacks, but the kids were smart, cooperative, and understanding. It wasn't an issue. Plus, I think they enjoyed having an excuse to finesse over the dolls a bit while they waited for me.

Here are a few photobooth shots:

At both libraries, the first craft on the schedule was placemats. At Brentwood, I got lucky because I had 8" x 10" foam mats leftover from another craft, plus heart doilies leftover from Valentine's Day. So, immediately upon coming in the room, I had the kids start gluing doilies to the foam to create a placemat for their tea and snack later. This was a quick craft so they could move onto American Girl Bingo and then craft #2.

At Huntington, the placemats I have planned are totally different. I created legal-size coloring sheets from another (free to use) tea coloring sheet I found online here at B. Nute Productions. All I did was modify the image a little to fit the size I wanted. They look like this:

I also ordered these sheet protectors on Amazon. So on Thursday, when the kids come in the room, they can start coloring immediately, then slip their finished art into a sheet protector and viola! It's a placemat!

Next on the agenda: a super fun game of American Girl Bingo. Making this was a labor of love.

YOU CAN VIEW THE PDF HERE. 

Bingo is always more successful than I expect it to be, so using this as many times as possible is a no-brainer, especially because it took several hours to make.

After Bingo, the kids moved onto craft #2:

 

They made beaded friendship bracelets and necklaces for both themselves and their dolls. I have a similar craft planned for the Huntington kids except I decided to 1-up it a little by incorporating these Best Friend Necklaces from Rhode Island Novelty (for the charms), this Pony Bead Bracelet Kit from Oriental Trading, and these Pony Bead Necklaces from Oriental Trading. My thinking is that they'll make best friend necklaces-- one for themselves and one for their doll, and the doll's will be made out of the bracelet. My lovely coworker was nice enough to make samples for me yesterday and send me a picture. Here is the result:

This is exactly what I was hoping they would look like! The Huntington kids will definitely enjoy this.

Last on the agenda: the snacks.  At Brentwood we had iced tea from the tea set and animal crackers. Here are some kids illustrating a little known fact: that everything taste better from a tea set.

Thursday's snacks will probably be similar. There will definitely be iced tea from a tea pot. This is what's important.

What worked best: I'd say having all the dolls out in the photobooth was best, but Bingo was a close second, and drinking tea from a tea set was a close third.

What worked least: With a group of this size, I desperately needed a second set of hands. It all probably would have moved more smoothly, with less waiting-time for the kids (and less headache me the librarian) if I'd pulled a page in the room to join me-- especially at snack-passing-out time.

Overall this was a great, albeit hectic program. It was packed to capacity and there were almost no supplies left behind. Kids were giddy and smiling the whole time and I even heard one say, "This is the best library program I've ever been to," which was pretty much all I needed to feel good about myself for a month or more.

I'm sure this Thursday's American Girl Tea Party at Huntington will be just as good. I worked hard to make sure it would be fun and I am so so sorry to miss it.