Planning and Prepping

Birthdays are a big deal around here and turning five in our house is a REALLY big deal.  The girls anticipate it for weeks, even when it's not their birthday.  They tell everyone about it, even strangers. Living near family meant that we were able to invite cousins to the tea party.  They arrived the night before, just in time to supervise the cake decorating process

 

and try to keep Gramps out of the frosting.

They heartily approved of the platypus teapot cake (Theia's request)

and so did Theia when she saw it later, even though I needed to explain that platypus was walking in the grass (those are his footprints) and the blue was the water.

Joe created a one-of-a-kind cheese tray, like he did for Xandra's party.

and Grandma Mary 

fancied up the birthday girl's hair.

The living room was tranformed into a tea room

the table was set and decorated.

Soon our other guests began to arrive, dressed to the nines, with favorite dolls in hand.

Miracle and Theia

Most of the tea party crew (from left):  cousins Lucy and Cora, Xandra, cousin Evie, Theia, Miracle, Joey, cousin Laney, Aliyah, cousin Liam

With presents piling on the counter and Xandra's "Theia Pull I Heart You" sign hung, all our preparations were complete and we awaited the arrival of our final two guests

 

for the pampering to begin.