A Sugar and Spice Tea Party

A Victorian nursery rhyme says "Sugar and Spice andgems, trims, and other shiny decorative items in the
everything nice, that's what little girls are made of."jewelry box and then have basic wood cutouts with
Hosting a Sugar and Spice Tea Party is a great wayjewelry pins attached on the back of them. The
to have a lot of fun while pretending to be grown up.guests can design their own jeweled treasures by
Children can help with preparation activities such as likegluing stones, trims, laces, and other shiny items onto
preparing finger sandwiches, decorating cookies, tothe wooden shape cutouts. Each guest then has a
arranging flowers as place markers at the table.great keepsake of the Sugar and Spice Tea Party
Guests can be invited to bring dress up clothes orafternoon. Once they have their proper accessories, it
vintage style hats or, alternatively the hostess canis time for the fashion show. Put on some music,
furnish a selection of dress up items (look at your localcreate a run way and watch them model their
Goodwill for some great items at little cost).fashions. Taking digital pictures will allow you to send
The dressed up ladies may enjoy participating in aeach of the young ladies home with pictures of their
treasure hunt. The hostess hides a jewelry box full ofmodeling debut.
old fashioned costume jewelry (brooches, necklaces,One last game that is fun and easy to set up is a tea
bracelets, etc.) - the perfect fashion accessories forcup relay. Divide the guests into two teams. Put a tea
the dress up game. Then, provide riddles or poems tocup on a table behind each team of guests. Give each
help the children figure out where the items are hid.guest their own sugar cube to hold. Then, give one
Each clue takes them to another, and to another, andteam member a tea spoon (the smaller it is the
so on. For example, a starting clue could be somethingharder!). Each member will place their sugar cube on
like: "Welcome ladies, a treasure you will find, if youthe tea spoon and run the relay race track without
follow all the clues that I have left behind. Ring! Ring!touching the sugar cube with their hands (if it falls off,
Hello? If you need to find the phone, where would youthey can use their hands to pick it back up). Then,
go?" Of course the guests will head straight to thewhen they get back to the beginning, they drop their
nearest phone where another clue tag hangs waitingcub into their team's teacup and pass the spoon to the
for them. Other clue hiding locations could be in plants,next member in line. First team that gets all their cubes
under chairs, behind pictures, in the garden, anywherein their teacup wins.
inside or outside that you can think of. Make the cluesFinish the Sugar and Spice afternoon off with a sit
easy enough the guests can find them quickly anddown tea party complete with cups, saucers, fresh
have enough clues to run around having fun. Finally,flowers, and some sugar and spice cookie treats. This
have them find the jewelry box and then they can allparty will be one each of the guests remember for a
put on jeweled accessories to go with their hats andlong time. Enjoy!
dresses! Or, alternatively, you can have various plastic