A Magical Maaaaad Hatter's Birthday

Mustn't be Late!
to the...
Maaad Hatter Tea Party Café

Celebrating Avant Garde Gal's 6th and Dauntless Daughter's 4th Birthdays!

my hubby drew this free-hand... I always forget how good at art he is.* (asterisks are photos I took, other photos by Katie Butler of Barefoot Life Photography)

I can't remember when the Johnny Depp, DVD version of Alice in Wonderland came out... but it was earlier this year. After we saw it on one of our family movie nights my daughters immediately wanted a Mad Hatter birthday party.

hubby also did a few cards to cover the recycling/garbage bins, I made the flags I found online*

I agreed.

My friend Sally bought me Johnny...see him?*

They remembered, all through the rest of the summer and reminded me as their birthday month approached.

Our backyard the day after the party...*

I even offered them separate parties this year. We always do their parties together since they are three days apart. They declined. They like being together. That makes me happy.

My friend Lori made these card garlands I had wanted to make...but she's the seamstress and offered to help me. I'm lucky.*

So... I spent the weeks leading up to their party planning, researching and plotting. The week right before their party - my oldest, broke her arm. So... luckily, I had done the prep work - and the days leading up to the party were filled with putting it altogether.

Lori helping my 4YO with her hat

I will say... I am so grateful. I am grateful first for my husband, who allows me to go nuts with parties. I am grateful he gets involved, excited and works with me to create a day of fantasy for my girls. I am also grateful for my wise, funny, sassy friends Sally and Lori. Sally, the spunkiest, real, hot momma, helped me run a few errands and found Johnny and left him on our doorstep for a surprise. Lori, sexy seamstress extraordinaire and came to help corral the 45 kids we had at our home. Let's not forget there were lovely mothers who stuck around seeing the chaos that would ensue at a party populated by that many little people.

6YO working with the glue

And... I have to thank my girls. Who... watched and helped with some of the prep work. Their excitement and appreciation... made me smile. In fact, I loved hearing them say, "Mommy, this is so amazing, how did you do that?!?" "Wow, this is so creative, I love it!" "I can't wait for the party! It's going to be awesome!" Both my girls are incredibly amazing at noticing details...and lately, they have been voluntarily thanking us, and appreciating us without any prompting that my heart is full of thanks to God for blessing me so completely.

I bought a bunch of feathers, foam leaves, ribbon and other knick knacks and separated a bunch into their own little baggies for an easier crafting grab. All from Michael's. I also printed out each kids' name, vertically, so they could glue it to their hat. They looked cute and we could easily identify who belonged to which hat.

Knowing it would be a bit of a mad house... apropos with the mad hatter theme... we hired Katie Butler of Barefoot Life Photography to take some pics. Unless otherwise noted, all pics are taking by Katie. Pictures, myself, or a friend took I've added an asterisk*.


Enjoy the pictures!



Party Stats:
45 kids (ages 3-7)
3-3:30pm - create mad hatter hats in the backyard
3:30-4:30pm - Alice in Wonderland magician and face painting
4:30-5pm - birthday song, cake, food
We didn't get a chance to do presents, and it would've taken forever.




Food:
Cupcakes
mini-hot dogs
carrots
tea sandwiches (PB&J, ham&cheddar, turkey&havarti)
grapes and strawberries
juice boxes and capri suns






Party Favors:
tea cup
bag of tea w/a "drink me" label
mini-gummi bears w/a "eat me label
crazy, bendy pencil
mini-recorder
spider ring
candy and some other knick knacks





About the mad hatter hats. I searched high and low to find ideas. I found the hat idea from a blog I've been following for years here. There's a company in San Diego that does these hats...but I figured, I had saved 45+ paper bags over the last... 5-6 years... I could also spray paint them all too. I had to enlist my hubby to help the last half of the hats... the fumes were getting to me...but they turned out adorable!

At one point some of the kids had finished their hats early. So my fabulous hubby jumped in with simon says.


thank goodness they are still small... they were able to all fit in our family room for the magic show









The fabric hanging and the one on the table I found at a flea market a few years ago.





I tried to make the cupcakes look kooky and whimsical










some of the kids who were done eating... went into our living room to jump on the tramp (ps. this is our 4YO's prince)




Hubby picked up these costumes for the fun of it...the girls totally got a kick out of us dressed up.