Tea for Ruby

Written by Shannon Leigh

I apalogize for the overload of pictures.

BUT my first child only turns one once.

We celebrated with a tea party last Saturday.

After all Ruby's favorite book is Tea for Ruby.

I made the invitations in photoshop and printed them on card stock.

I scanned floral fabric and then fashioned it into the teacup. I also scanned burlap to give the background a little bit of texture.

The fabric on the outside of the invitation is from a vintage pillowcase from a thrift store.

The gold and white medallions were left over from a project long ago.

The party was at our house.

It was a tight squeeze but everyone managed ok in our humble abode.

We used vintage tea cups (including some from Grandma Ruby, Grandma Dudley, my mom & my mother-in-law).

I even had my Great Grandma Hagen's teapot.

We also had real lumps of sugar (I was really excited about that).

I made Paula Dean's Strawberry Cake for the center of the table.

Ruby's smash cake came from Cakes on Walnut, of course..

I made embellished party hats for EVERYONE.

and EVERYONE wore one.

It was awesome.

I wish I would have gotten a pictures of the whole group.

I also made Ruby a party hat with a matching bib to wear while she ate her smash cake.

She wasn't thrilled with the hat.

O the menu for the day:

Strawberry cake

Chocolate cupcakes with whipped cream cheese frosting

Lemon cupcakes with lemon icing

Teapot shaped sugar cookies

Strawberries & grapes with whipped cream

Cucumber sandwiches

Broccoli sunflower salad

Cheeseball & crackers

Hot tea

Ice tea

Lemonade

&

Coffee

The chair swags are made out of doilies.

I got the idea from Martha, of course.

I LOVE that my grandma wore here party hat and sipped on tea.

So cute.

Kellen dressed up like a cowboy because... he's awesome.

I also made the garland on the window.

It's just fabric & ribbon tied to twine!

This one took some trial and error since I didn't have any kind of tutorial but I eventually got it looking the way I wanted.

Cake time.

We stripped down Ruby's dress (more on that later) and put on her hat and bib.

She wasn't SUPER excited over her smash cake.

We stuck her hand in it a few times trying to get her to go crazy but she just kind of nibbled on the icing.

She certainly didn't dig in.

It WAS a tea party after all.

She was just being a lady.

Since Matty turned the big 3-0 last week and he didn't celebrate with anyone, other than me, I decided to make him a cake and surprise him at Ruby's party.

I made him a baked alaska (one of his favorites).

I think he enjoyed it!

Then of course it was present time!

She was so spoiled by our families.

We feel so blessed to have so many people who love Ru like we do.

A special shout out to all who came and made Ruby's first birthday special.

(Especially my mother-in-law who slaved away in the kitchen with me for hours before the guests arrived. I couldn't have done it without her).

Over all the party was a great success.

I'm already dreaming up plans for birthday #2.

Dun dun dun...

Don't tell Matt.