One of our family traditions is that each of our girls gets a birthday tea party each year starting at 3 years old (yet one more reason I’m scared to have a baby boy – I have no idea what the equivalent of this tradition would be!).

I’m not really a fan of big birthday parties, and with soon-to-be four little ones, they’re not very practical either!

We do a family birthday party and then a small tea party with the girls and a couple of their friends (which often means Brittany and her girls), and my mom usually comes as well. (And then we round out “birthday week” with a special lunch out and an outing of some sort – this year we’re going to the local Discovery Museum!)

Unfortunately, Pumpkin Doodle started throwing up the day before Monkey Doodle’s first annual tea party, so we Brittany and her girls did not come. That didn’t stop us from having a lovely tea party anyway, though!

For us, a tea party simply means a special drink with our lunch (this time it was sparkling punch, i.e., cranberry-grape juice mixed with gingerale) and the girls get to decorate their own cupcakes, always a fun activity.

Really, I like to keep things low key, but for now these simple activities are enough to make them feel special and celebrated, and that’s my goal!