Tags: Activities for Littles cookies Little Foodies Mom of Boys Party Planning Quick Recipes Sweet Tooth
A few months back I attended a Ladies Tea Party at the most adorable little tea house. It was so much fun to sit and enjoy wonderful friends, good food, and delicious tea…all while totally feeling fancy. It was a “ladies only” event so I was not able to bring the boys, but as I sat there, I started thinking about how much fun they would have had. I started planning a trip back to the tea house with them. Of course, shortly afterward, COVID-19 hit, and my plans of leaving the house for fun lunch-time activities stopped for the foreseeable future.
We’ve been cooped up in the house for a little over three months now, and in desperate need of fun. Constantly looking for ways to keep the boys entertained and distracted from our current quarantined situation, we ordered sidewalk chalk for the backyard, started a vegetable garden for them to maintain, signed up for Disney+ to have more movie nights, and even got the boys involved in some of our new house updates. But even with all the “in-home” fun, the boys are still very aware of the fact that we no longer leave the house. The other day Liev told us he missed going to restaurants—we haven’t been to Target in three months, but he’s more concerned with the lack of restaurant eating. He’s a boy after my own heart! That gave me an idea…time to have some meal-time fun at home.
My first thought was to play restaurant at dinner time. I could print up menus with one or two meal options and some side order options…maybe talk Adrian into being a waiter. But while that would be fun, and I’ll probably do it in the future, I realized that recreating the experience at the tea house for them would be even more fun.
I started rifling through my party supplies and my baking cabinet and came across a dinosaur shaped sandwich cutter. A light bulb went off, and I went into full planning mode. We were going to have a tea party, but not just any tea party…a Tea-Rex Party!
I had fun putting this one together and the boys had an absolute blast at their Tea-Rex Party. Even Adrian got in on the action…he kept telling the boys how everything tasted better when it was shaped like dinosaurs. He’s such a trooper. Here are the details of the party and all my easy recipes for making it a Tea-Rex success (#dadjoke)
THE MENU:
· Strawberry “Tea” Lemonade
· Water from the Ice Age
· Finger Sandwiches
· Chicken Morsels with a Tomato Reduction (nuggets & ketchup)
· Corn/Potato Crisps (chips, cause who doesn’t love chips?!)
· Assorted Fruits with a Yogurt Compote
· Fossil Sugar Confection (sugar cookies)
THE TEA – Strawberry Lemonade
My boys won’t touch tea. I’ve tried berry herbal teas, cinnamon apple teas…they won’t touch the stuff. Instead, I went with something they would drink: Lemonade. I have a delicious strawberry lemonade recipe and figured if it was served out of a tea pot, who’s gonna know the difference. Here’s the recipe:
This strawberry lemonade is made up of four components:
1. Strawberry syrup
Wash and slice a pint of strawberries. In a bowl, toss them with 1-2 Tbsp granulated sugar. Let them sit on the counter for an hour or so. The sugar will begin to break down the berries and create a sweet syrup. Stain the berries (and save) and add the syrup to your lemonade pitcher.
NOTE: The more sugar you add and the longer you let them sit, the more syrup they will produce.
2. Lemon Simple Syrup
In a small saucepan, over med/low heat, combine 1 cup water, 1 cup granulated sugar, and the peel of two lemons. Cook until all the sugar has dissolved. Stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and let come to room temperature. Once cooled, remove the peels and add the syrup to your pitcher.
3. Fresh Lemon Juice
NOTE: I like my lemonade tart! I use at least 12 lemons, but you can adjust this to suit your tastes.
Slice your lemons in half and squeeze them into a sieve, fitted over a bowl (you don’t want to get any seeds in your lemonade). Add the freshly squeezed juice to your pitcher.
4. Water
At this point all the hard work is done. You just need to add water. How much will depend on how you prefer your lemonade. Taste your mixture and add water accordingly.
Once it’s to your liking, let it chill in the refrigerator. When it comes time to serve, pour and add the reserved sliced strawberries to the glass. YUM!
THE FOOD:
Finger sandwiches were a must…what’s a tea party without finger sandwiches? This is where my dinosaur sandwich cutter came into play. I went with their favorite: turkey & Swiss. Added a little mayo and deli mustard and cut them into adorable little dinosaur shapes. You could do just about any bread/topping combination you like—PB&J, avocado toast, even Nutella and bananas would be yummy.
When placing my last online grocery order, I came across these organic dinosaur chicken nuggets and HAD to add them to tea party menu. They were a perfect addition to our party.
The fruit platter was easy to assemble. I sliced up and plated strawberries, apples, and Cutie oranges. The yogurt dip is a staple in our house…the boys will literally lick their plates when served fruit with yogurt dip.
YOGURT DIP:
– 1 cup Greek yogurt
– 1 Tbsp honey
– Ground cinnamon, to taste
– Mix and enjoy (with or without fruit to dip)
FOSSIL COOKIES:
The cookies where super easy to put together. I went with store bought cookie dough, and simply sliced, stamped, and baked.
I wanted to make fossil cookies, so I went through the boys’ dinosaur bin and chose a dinosaur figure that had a really nice footprint.
Parasaurolophus to the rescue! Through trial and error, I discovered the best way to go about make fossil cookies is a four-step process:
1. Slice your dough and place slices on a parchment lined cookie sheet.
2. Dip your dino’s foot in flour and press into the center of the cookie slice. Press hard enough to make a good impression, but not so hard that you make a hole.
3. Place your uncooked cookies in the freezer for 10 minutes.
4. Bake according to package instructions.
THE DECOR:
Rex was our centerpiece and everything else was literally scrounged from leftover party supplies that I’d saved over the years. I’m a firm believer in saving all party supplies because being able to throw a party at a moment’s notice is essential in our home…the boys love a good party and I like to turn everything I can into a party. Life’s more fun when you have more parties.
I’m pretty sure we’ll have more tea parties in the future…this was just too much fun to be a one-time thing. Here’s to quarantine parties…CHEERS!!
