Happy Birthday Kate!

On Saturday, we celebrated Kate's 4th birthday a few weeks early with an "Alice in Wonderland" themed birthday party at our house. Our friends and neighbors came over for a special 'Mad Hatter' tea party. Kate and her friends dined on pizza and cupcakes and danced  to a special mixed cd of songs that I created in  honor of the Birthday Girl including some of her favorite songs by Hannah Montana, Justin Beiber, The Chipettes and Beyonce.  When they weren't dancing they were outside bouncing in the Disney Princess moonwalk.  

I also enjoyed preparing for the party. When Kate wanted to do a "Alice in Wonderland" party, I was a little nervous because there isn't much out there in terms of party supplies, but I have to say I found an awesome vendor through Etsy, who hand made Kate's invitations, cupcake toppers, treat bag stickers, thank you notes, confetti and more and that, coupled with lots of online research that gave me the inspiration I needed to carry through to come up with lots of great ideas for decorations, favors, games and crafts. As Alice in Wonderland is one of the most popular ideas for a children's birthday party, I thought I would help some of you other mom's out there and tell you what I did:

I set up our play room for the "Mad Hatter Tea party" - we rented a couple of kids-size tables and multi-color kids chairs from Rent-All Plaza in Kennesaw, GA and set the table with a blue-green paisley fabric table cloth for tea. I even used my white china teacups from Crate and Barrel and turned them in different directions as the table top decoration.  The dining room (where the adult food was set up) was decorated in a "Queen of Hearts" theme complete with casino-type decorations, red and black, hearts, spades, clubs, and diamonds and vintage Alice in Wonderland tea sets that I happen to score on a random trip to Home Goods. The entry way was decorated in pastel colored Creatology foam flowers and a Happy Birthday Kate sign.

In keeping with the "Mad Hatter Tea Party" theme, each of Kate's guests decorated their own "Mad Hatter" hat, which they all really seemed to enjoy. I bought green plastic top hats online and went to Michaels for ribbons and foam letters, hearts and different shapes that they could stick on to their hat. No glue! It was a fun and easy craft for three, four and five-year-olds. 

For fun, I posted a little video that my friend Ragan shot on her i phone of all the kids singing Happy Birthday to our sweet Kate.