My two sweet peas celebrated their 11th birthday with a fun tween theme of Alice in Wonderland. This was a great theme because it was fun and whimsical but also sophisticated enough that they felt really special with the grown up touches to the party.
I thought I'd share what all we did for our party to inspire you - it was fun to put together! I think this party could be done for just about any age. Plus, this gave me an excellent excuse to go thrift store shopping - bonus! So, here's how our Alice party went...
Invitations - I found some great graphics from google and also the graphics fairy to create these postcard invitations printed front and back (the peas are not actually named Lily and Emily - we fudged them, they like their privacy. Tweens!) We hand delivered each invitation with a teapot cookie that Aunt Carla made for the girls (they were AMAZING cookies - these photos from my phone don't do them justice!). 
Decorations - I HAD to go to at least 5 different thrift shops to find all of the teacups and saucers. Twist my arm. Love junk shopping! I scored these great Johnson Brothers china teacups at one shop and was so excited. They match my dishes - I have a different pattern but they are very similar!
Cupcake plates! To make the cupcake plates, use super glue or an epoxy and glue the saucers to the candlesticks. These were used as our treat plates during the party and we also let each girl take them home as one of their favors. They could use them to hold jewelry or a candle, etc. Most plates were 59 cents, candlesticks 99 cents...pretty cool deal I think! I found the teapots at the thrift store too...and added some faux flowers and birds from the dollar store. The other decorations that hung from the ceiling were also from the dollar store with all the Easter stuff.
Playing card garland - also from the dollar store, I punched a couple of holes into each card and strung them up to create a garland.
I also used a roll of craft paper and poster board to create the rabbit hole by cutting out the hole and adding some mushrooms. We hung this in the doorway to the party room and the kids had to crawl through. That was a lot of fun! Of course, we added a few arrows saying, This Way, That Way, and The Other Way! And arrows over each birthday girls seat with their names on the arrows. A mix and match of table coverings and chairs to mimic the Mad Hatter's tea party worked great - we just used what we had on hand.
I also added "drink me!" and "eat me!" tags to the teacups and plates as well as to some little bottles I thrifted.
As each guest arrived, we gave them a ticket for the movie. We had them pretend to drink from the bottle that said "drink me" and then showed them to their seats. We had the Alice in Wonderland movie set up (there is a great 1999 version that is a modern update to the classic - NOT the Johnny Depp version!). When we brought them into our family room, we had a row of chairs set up from the girls American Girl and Barbie houses and pretended that they must have grown and therefore, wouldn't fit on our seats. They thought that was funny! Then we watched the first half of the movie, up to the tea party scene...that made them hungry and so we went out to the party room and ate.
Queen of Hearts - of course, there HAS to be the Queen of Hearts! I obliged and surprised my girls when I came down in a red ruffly shirt, black sweater and skirt and one of their huge hair bows on my head. I painted some craziness on my eyelids and added a heart to my cheek and embarrassed them by talking in some weird British accent most of the day. The Gardener had his Mad Hatter hat on for all of 5 minutes. Sprout thought we both just looked funny!
I found a mirror at a thrift shop and I'm going to hang it in my sewing room but I used it on the food table for the party - it was really pretty. We served fruit and veggie trays with ranch dressing and peanut butter dips, chocolate covered strawberries and pretzels, and pink lemonade and sweet tea, of course! Maybe because the girls were all dressed up or maybe because we were using real glass serving ware but they were so well behaved at the tea party...it was funny! Not that I expected them to not behave but they were all being very proper and using such nice manners. 
Games and Crafts - I think it goes without saying, if you have an Alice in Wonderland party, there will be croquet. So...Ohio this time of year, well, it was windy, overcast and barely 40' outside BUT darn it, we did play croquet! And the kids loved it!
We also set up a photo booth which was really fun! Being close to St. Patrick's Day and Mardi Gras, I was able to easily find fun crazy glasses and hats at the dollar store. The kids could put on whatever and pose in front of the backdrop which was plastic table cloths hung from the ceiling along with balloons and some playing cards. We turned on some music and they had a blast snapping shots. Even Sprout went crazy with all the big kids (she's such a trooper - she's been icky sicky with a cold all week).
We made these simple marble magnets - I read about these probably 7 years or so ago in Family Fun magazine and we make them often. Just button magnets with images (I used my alice images I found online) with those floral marbles that are flat on one side all glued together. The marble magnifies the image. Pretty cool. I also found this inexpensive ball chain that we cut to length for each girl and these key pendants. The girls then had to add a jump ring and string them on their necklace. Both made for great party favors.
Cheap is how I like to go so I opted to use these lunch bags as their favor bags. I think they were $1 for 50 and then I added a tag with each girls name on it and some ribbon. I also added a few stickers and a crazy straw to their bag to add to their key necklace, magnets and cupcake plates as Favors.
But the big favorite as far as favors go had to be the hairbows. My friend Kelley from our twins club has the cutest bow shop and made up these hair clips for all the girls. I have a basket full of her bows for Sprout and the Peas - they are super cute and really fabulous quality! This picture I swiped from her facebook page isn't the best quality photo - the girls were so excited about these I didn't even get a chance to take a quick pic!
After the tea party and croquet and photos and crafts...the girls were ready for CAKE!!
My BFF Kristin (who also helps me with my two peas business) is an amazing cake maker! She gifted the girls with this cake for their party. It was off the hook, crazy AWESOME! She had their names on it, cards, mushrooms, the white rabbit and his watch, the caterpillar, the cheshire cat and his big grin...topped with a teapot and teacups. All handmade fondant and hand painted by her and her daughter, who is one of the two peas BFF's.
On top of that - the inside was a white and purple checkerboard! It was a huge hit at the party and yes! She is for hire! (She's driven as far as Texas before to deliver cakes but if you're local to Columbus, she loves to make cakes on the weekends for all kinds of parties for a little extra "mom" money. You can get in touch with Kristin at kristintwopeas at gmail dot com).
With 11 girlfriends - most of whom they have been friends with since they were 3 or 4 years old, it was a great way to celebrate the Two Peas 11th birthday! I love you girls to the moon and back!
Happy Happy Birthday!
