Valentine's Day Tea Party

Once upon a time there was a 5 year old girl with pretty blonde hair and big blue eyes. We will call her Princess Strawberry. Why? Because I just asked her what she wanted her pretend name to be, and that's what she said. :)

About a week after Thanksgiving Princess Strawberry decided her greatest wish in the whole wide world was to throw a tea party for her friends. She immediately started making long detailed lists of what kinds of treats she wanted to serve, and what sort of activities her tea party would include. Her mother- who was slightly overwhelmed with the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, not to mention exhausted from being great with child and chasing 3 little princesses around all day- gently explained to Princess Strawberry that while she thought it was very sweet that she wanted to throw her friends a tea party, that perhaps they could wait until life slowed down a little. 

"When would that be?" asked the young princesses.

 Ha- Never. "Uhh... maybe after the holiday season is over" Her mother finally replied, "Maybe we could do it in February, for Valentine's Day." 

The princesses was ecstatic! A Valentine's Day Tea Party! What could be more delightful than that?! 

Like I said earlier, the princess's mother was pretty tired! This pregnancy had not been an easy one for her, and secretly in her heart she hoped that her darling princess would forget all about this tea party business... But she should have known better. Christmas Day as the girls were being tucked into bed Princess Strawberry asked her mom, "How many more days until Valentine's Day?" 

And thus the Valentine's Day Tea Party was born. 

By now you all know that I love any excuse to throw a party! I really do! But I needed this one to be SIMPLE- and it was. It was also extremely fun! I love Valentine's Day, and I love the idea of celebrating ALL the people you cherish in your life, in addition to your cute hubby. (He's pretty darn important too!) I hope as you check out these pictures you'll be able to snag some ideas on how to throw a very simple Valentine's Party for the little princesses (and princes!) in your life!

 In order to keep things simple, most of the treats we served were store bought. At first I was kind of embarrassed about that, but guess what- the kids didn't care AND I got to keep my sanity!

Here's a list of what I bought:

Pink coconut "snowballs"

Cinnamon hearts

Cherry gummy hearts

Dove Strawberry and Chocolate swirled hearts (These looked AND tasted awesome!)

Raspberries and Strawberries which were cut to looked like hearts.

Strawberry Nestle-Quick

I also bought pre-sliced cheese and used a cookie cutter to cut out some cute heart shapes to go with our crackers.

And the few things I baked:

(Mostly because I wanted the grown ups to be able to enjoy a little something to eat too!)

Turkey and cheese roll-ups in whole wheat tortillas

I also used some store bought puff pastry and made little pesto ham and cheese bites, and Nutella and strawberry pies- heart shaped of course.

Then my sister in law surprised me by making her famous raspberry banana bread cupcakes with raspberry cream cheese frosting- and I ate about 6 of them. :)

After we ate the girls played dress up, got manicures and fancy glittery hair-dos, and made candy necklaces. 

 I'm so glad my little princess suggested throwing this party! We all had so much fun, and I loved spending some quality time with all my favorite little girls.