Mad Hatter’s Tea Party at Anthony House

Yesterday we had (to quote my kids) “the most fun we ever had!” We went to a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, part of the Alice in Wonderland Experience at Anthony House, the location where Tim Burton’s new Alice in Wonderland movie was filmed!

I visited Anthony years ago (when I was a child) and it is still a grand English house set in beautiful gardens .. with some new elements added, like the statue of the Caterpillar sitting on the mushroom as you go through the main gates, and a play area with colourful mushrooms and a rabbit-hole slide!

The Tea Party involved about 30 kids taking part in an hour of chasing characters from Alice in Wonderland around the gardens of Anthony House, finding the Cheshire Cat’s smiles, the Mad Hatter’s lost hats and the Queen of Heart’s lost crown, joining in on a dance to entertain the Red Queen, and culminating in a Tea Party in a marquee with tea (juice) and jam tarts, and more games on an Alice theme .. pass the teapot .. Flamingo (picture bingo) .. design a hat for the Queen of Hearts ..

The highlight moment of the day for me was at the Tea Party, Alice asked the Hatter “So how do you actually make a hat then?” The Hatter replied “Well I start by measuring their head”, Oliver, sat nearby, looked up and said quite seriously “Yes, that’s what I usually do.” The hatter then said “Oh yes, you’re a fellow hatter so you would know..” I had to try very hard not to laugh too loudly!



















There were photo ops galore with my two in all their finery in such a beautiful setting .. I've included some favourites here, and have added even more to my flickr set ..
View slideshow of all images ..

The kids (and us!) are very keen to do a return visit to Anthony over the summer (the kids both wanted to go back the very next day!) .. we still have more exploring to do .. I really want to find all the key locations from the movie ..