With the girls’ birthdays exactly six months apart, I am almost always in party planning mode. There’s usually a month or two lull when I’m happily basking in the post-party glow of our latest soiree, but then the itch comes, and once again I excitedly start gearing up. As our next party’s planning begins, a luau for Sophie’s 8th birthday, I can’t help but remember her 7th: a lovely Mad Hatter tea party.

The girls had been in an Alice In Wonderland phase for a while, loving the book and the movies, so an Alice-themed party seemed perfect. The invitation was a fun project. And inspiration struck when I got the idea of designing one crazy-long table in the backyard for all the children to sit together for the tea party; plywood on boxes, covered with pretty Land of Nod polka-dot sheets as a tablecloth, worked perfectly to make cozy seating for 18! I love industrial elements and decided to use galvanized metal buckets and mason jars as containers, brown craft paper and office supply tags. We had so much fun making “Eat Me,” “Drink Me,” “Enjoy Me,” and “Play Me” labels to attach to everything. I picked up lots of inexpensive mismatched tea cups – one for each guest – which made great party favors.

When the children arrived, we had a table set up to make your own Mad Hatter fascinator (I’d been inspired by the Royal Wedding), quite a hit. In the backyard, kids could play croquet, go on a key-finding treasure hunt or take part in “Painting the Roses Red” at an art table. Everyone had so much fun – I loved watching the little ones practicing raising their pinky fingers and giggling their way through our fancy tea party. It was a magical day for my special Alice.