Wednesday Wall2Wall ☆ Tea Party Birthday Celebration

Last year we did not give our daughters birthday parties. (Here is the post about a celebration of my older daughter’s 6th birthday in 2010) We moved from the States to Indonesia in July, 2010 and we did not have a car during the first 6 months, so I felt overwhelmed with the holiday season and also preparing for a birthday party seemed too much without a car. This year, however, I knew I wanted to have birthday parties for both of our girls. My girls have been to many big birthday parties in Jakarta, but I wanted something rather small and personal.

I picked the theme afternoon tea party for both of our girls because you can have a party in the afternoon and all I need to prepare is desserts for the party. This allowed me to have less time to prepare than cooking lunch for the guests. Since I was having parties for our two daughters back to back during the busiest holiday season, I needed to make this less labor intensive and this was my solution.

FOOD
Sandwiches (cream cheese and raspberry jam, cream cheese and cucumber, and cheese), cupcakes, Macaroons (I hear macaroons are new cupcakes), Meringue cookies, Strawberry Pocky, Chocolate Covered Strawberries, Cake Balls, fruits, wafers, frosted animal cookies, Strawberry Oreos and mini jelly cups.

Macaroons & Meringue Cookies
KueKue
•Dharmawangsa Square Ground floor, Exhibition Area
•FX Lifestyle X’enter FB Floor K-5, Grab and Go Area
Phone +62 815 922 6222

Marshmallows
Kempi Deli at Grand Indonesia / Hotel Indonesia Kempinski Jakarta

DECORATION
Wall Decal: I found inexpensive tea theme wall decal at ACE Hardware in Jakarta some time ago, so I picked up the wall decal. The price was somewhere between US$10-15.

Lights
I picked those up when I was in Bangkok, Thailand at a weekend market. I bought them thinking I would be able to use them for a birthday party in the future.

Straws, Food Picks, Umbrellas
DAISO at Papaya in Blok M
Jl. Melawai Raya No. 28 Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta Selatan 12160
TEL: (021) 7279-3777
DAISO is a 100 store in Japan. The store in Jakarta sells everything for IDR 22,000 per item. It is a handy store. I love DAISO!

Birthday parties for my two daughters were on two separate days: a celebration for my younger one was held on a Friday after school and a celebration for my older daughter was on a Saturday, the day after her sister’s. The one for my younger daughter was like a big play date type of party and the one for my older one was a drop off party. It was our first experience as a host of a drop off party. Both parties were practically the same, but I made a slight variation in a dessert spread between the first day and the second day. I pretty much recycled all the decorations and activities, so it made the preparation for the second day much easier and less stressful.
Day 1
Day 2
Can you tell the little differences between the dessert tables?

ACTIVITIES
I prepared a few activities.

Decorating Cup Cake

I prepared 3 different colors of frosting and 4 different kinds of sprinkles. You don’t need much sprinkles and I recommend putting each kind of sprinkles in a bowl with a spoon since otherwise kids would put too much on their cupcakes.

I had chocolate and vanilla cupcakes. I recommend preparing just one flavor. I had more vanilla than chocolate and kids wanted more chocolate cupcakes.

Coloring Pages
Printable from Arisan Studio

Alice in Wonderland coloring pages

Tea Bag Craft Activity
I saw on an internet site about a tea bag making activity, so I prepared the following items and made into a tea bag activity.

What to prepare
Paper bags (gift bags), Stapler, Strings, Origami paper, Stamps, Stickers, Markers

I thought that the older kids, 6 and 7-year-olds would enjoy the crafts more, but they did not show much interest. On the other hand, the younger children, 3-year-olds, who came to my younger one’s 4th birthday celebration, really enjoyed doing craft and they were very entertained by the craft activities.

PARTY FAVOR

I found those cups at ACE Hardware about a month ago. I originally wanted to buy either mugs or tea cups, but I spotted these mugs/ice cream cups and thought that the colors were adorable and they would make great party favor for the tea party theme birthday party. Inside was a strawberry flavor tea bag, a tea-cup or tea-pot shaped lollipop, and some other candies.

I hope this could be of any help for some other moms to prepare for their kids/daughters’ birthday party, especially in Jakarta.