What little girl doesn’t LOVE a tea party? Little girls and tea parties go hand in hand. No matter how simple or fancy it is, they will enjoy it. I can still remember dressing up in my grandma’s hats, high-heeled shoes and jewelry while sitting down to chipped china from her basement and having tea (which was really tap water) with my toys. It didn’t matter that I was wearing shorts and a tank top underneath, I was still the Queen of England in my mind.

Here are a coupe of my favorite tea parties that I have done with my girls. These are perfect to chase away summer boredom. Tea parties can be thrown together in little time by using only things that you already have in the house. Both of these were done with things I had on hand and cost me absolutely nothing! All you need is a little time and imagination.

Rainy Day Letter Writing and Tea Party

During the summer when the kids are out of school some days we might find ourselves stuck inside due to a rain storm. These days are perfect to invite a friend or two over and have a last-minute tea party. By using only things we had in the house I set up a letter writing/tea party for four. The girls made invites and went to local friends and invited them over for tea.

I set up a little table in the bay window with some decorations that we had left over from a party last year.

I had some old stationary that my mother-in-law gave me last year so I decided that our activity would be writing letters and making cards for moms, and grandmas.

Every week I hit up Target on Tuesday mornings during the school year when I have a little bit of time to myself. (I have found that they put out new stuff on Tuesdays here so they clearance out the old stuff.) I check out the clearance end-caps for good deals. I now have a steadily growing collection of notebooks and notepads. (They usually cost me about a quarter each so I can’t pass them up when I see them.) For this particular party I grabbed a few out of the pile and wrapped some tulle around it in a bow. I created little packages for the girls to take home. This way they could keep writing letters even after the party.

It was a “tea” party but the girls never actually drank tea. They had lemonade and cookies while they wrote their letters instead. I offered tea but they were content to write letters, watch the rain, and eat the pink Starburts that I put out as table confetti. The whole thing took only 30 minutes to set up. The girls had a great afternoon and we stayed busy on that rainy day.

Tea In The Trees

When the weather is nice and you want to get out here is a tea party idea that is just as easy or easier than the rainy day tea party. All you need are a couple of trees. I took some old sheer curtains from Ikea that I had from when the girls were little and we tied them to the branches. I put their little table down and covered it with another old curtain and set out plastic plates and cookies. It was easy and fun. It took 5 minutes of prep and the girls had a grand time. I want to do this one again on a larger scale with lots of little girls. Can you see it? Our favorite family photographer caught these awesome pics while they were eating.

So no matter rain or shine you can have a fast, fun, (almost) free activity to help keep your kid’s boredom at bay. Now if they would only just share those cookies with me…

*Photos courtesy of Shannon Hadden and Kendra Frampton