You’ve seen this picture before. After our Wonderland party, we printed it onto card stock to make thank you cards for our guests. If you want your own Alice cards (or iPhone covers or laptop skins or tote bags, etc.) you can find them here.
Also, pssst! For a limited time only, you can use code TENDOLLARPRINTS to get june at noon prints for only $10!
“Clean cup, clean cup. Move down.”
To finish off our Wonderland party, our guests moved past the Royal Croquet Court and the Caucus Race Rock to the Mad Hatter’s table. I was going for a bright, colorful, slightly topsy-turvy look.
(My only regret is that I didn’t have the time to come up with more cool wooden—or even upholstered!—chairs to use around the table. I think it would have been really gorgeous with more variety and more interesting seats.)
I found some pretty teacups at the local thrift store and placed bright silk flowers in glass jars with matching ribbon tied around them. To represent the singing flowers, I stuck wiggle eyes on some of the flowers. A stuffed Minnie Mouse stood in as our Dormouse.
We kept the food simple and slightly unhealthy, just as you should for a party. (Right?) Peanut-butter-and-jelly and ham-and-cheese sandwiches were cut down to bite size. Colorful bowls were filled with popcorn and cheese curls.
I attached little card stock signs to wooden dowels to go with the bowls, and for drinks I found cases of fruit drink bottles at the dollar store and tied tags around them with string. We pretended to grow and shrink as we ate.
My cousin provided the cake, whose design was based on a number of pictures that the birthday girl liked via Google images. (She made this one too.)
(Cake photos courtesy of my uncle.)
I don’t think I need to say any more about the cake, do I? You can see how fantastic it was.
As our guests were leaving, the exhausted but satisfied Alice presented them with favor bags. We included seed packets, wax drink bottles, bubbles, playing cards, and flavored sandwich cookies. We tied them up in clear plastic bags with black ribbon and a red rose.
And that was that!
The best part of this party for me was the delight on my Alice’s face. She was thrilled with each small detail that I included. She raced her guests around the yard showing them everything, her face lit up with excitement, and that made it all absolutely worth it.
“Do you think I’ve gone round the bend?”
“I’m afraid so. You’re mad, bonkers, completely off your head. But I’ll tell you a secret. All the best people are.”
Welcome back to Wonderland!
Once our party guests had found their way down the rabbit hole, they were directed to a table set up with white teacups and saucers and a variety of supplies for decorating them.
(I am so annoyed with the crummy photos I’ve been getting lately. I’m really wanting to get a new camera, but I’ve got to keep saving for that, so this is what you get for now, with my apologies.)
I found the cups and saucers at a local thrift store for 50 cents a piece, so this was a perfect low-budget craft that doubled as a party favor. I had a supply of permanent markers that seemed to be fairly permanent on the ceramic, and I added some gems, glue, and paints from our craft supplies. When the decorating was done, the cups were glued to the saucers, and I attached small tags explaining that they could be used as planters or bowls for catching spare coins or holding jewelry.
While the teacups were drying, we moved into the Royal Croquet Court for a curious game of croquet.
NOTICE: All winners against the queen will be subject to loss of their heads.
I found inflatable pink flamingos at the dollar store, and a friend of mine just happens to have a collection of stuffed hedgehogs. The playing cards were made with poster board and a little elbow grease and attached to wire croquet wickets.
We set the wickets up in two rows on our croquet court. Then we divided our partygoers into two teams and had them play a croquet relay race. Alice and the Mad Hatter gave it a go despite the challenge of swinging an unwilling flamingo!
From the croquet court we moved to a large rock at the back of our yard for a Caucus Race.
“Forward, backward, inward, outward, come and join the chase. Nothing can be dryer than a jolly caucus race.”
We played this like musical chairs. Everyone walked around the rock until I shouted, “Stop!”, and then they hurried to sit down on the ground. The last person to sit was out, and the game continued until only one guest was left standing.
Avoiding beheadings and running in caucus races can be exhausting, so we were soon ready for rest and refreshment, and that’s where I’ll leave you for today. Next stop, the Mad Hatter’s table!
