CHESTERTON | The 23rd Annual Teddy Bear Tea Party will be held on the grounds of The Yellow Brick Road Gift Shop & Oz Fantasy Museum at 1 p.m. on Sunday. It will be hosted by Princess Ozma of Oz and sponsored by The Yellow Brick Road. The event is a part of Munchkinland Market Days, today through Sunday, which is sponsored by Centier Bank, Hilton Garden Inn-Chesterton and The Yellow Brick Road. The tea party is being produced in cooperation with Lakeshore Festival & Events, producers of the Indiana Wizard of Oz Festival held the same days at the Expo Center in Valparaiso.

Princess Ozma (actress/ventriloquist Elaine Macejak) first appeared in Chesterton at The Yellow Brick Road Gift Shop in 1984 during the Wizard of Oz Festival. The next year she was asked to host the family-oriented Teddy Bear Tea Party when it was first sponsored by downtown Chesterton's Katie's Ice Cream Parlor, which continued to sponsor for more than a decade. The Princess has hosted every Teddy Bear Tea Party since with the help of her puppets Sassy Ann and Teddy Bear. There have been a variety of sponsors and locations.

The Princess, her tea party and her puppets return to the Yellow Brick Road for the second year in a row to host the 23rd Annual Teddy Bear Tea Party. The program opens each year with a ventriloquist show featuring the Princess, Sassy Ann, Teddy Bear, Naughty Dog and Patchwork Dragon. A party tent pitched among the attractions and art and craft booths at Munchkinland Market Days will house the event on the grounds of the Yellow Brick Road.

The Teddy Bear Oz Costume Contest will return also. Children are encouraged to make Oz costumes for their own Teddy Bear, put them on their teddy bear and bring the bear to the Teddy Bear Tea Party. Prizes will be given to the first through fourth place costumes.

The Teddy Bear Tea Party is free. The first 40 children to attend receive a goodie bag provided by Princess Ozma and The Yellow Brick Road. Juice drinks and snacks will be served.

Munchkinland Market Days is located at The Yellow Brick Road Gift Shop & Oz Fantasy Museum at 109 E. Yellow Brick Road (Indiana Toll Road and Ind. 49), two miles south of downtown Chesterton. The event features Auntie Em's Pie Booth to benefit the Duneland Working Women's Scholarship Fund, Oz kid's games and hot caramel apples to benefit the Burns Harbor Lions Club, a hot dog stand to benefit Support Our Military, face painting, art and craft booths, celebrity autograph parties, thousands of Oz collectibles, Picture Yourself in Oz, the Oz Fantasy Museum and more. Sales of an official souvenir program book benefit the Westchester Neighbors Food Pantry.

For information, call (219) 926-7048 or check the website at www.yellowbrickroadonline.com.