Tea for Two

Yesterday was so dreary and dark and rainy all day. I love the rain and I love thunderstorms but with all the rain and yucky weather we have had lately, I was ready to do something fun!

Sydney loves tea parties. When she goes to her granny's house, they have tea parties with fancy dishes and goodies to eat. Sydney usually dresses up in frilly, oversized clothes from the play trunk (with as much gaudy jewelry as her little frame can handle and still manage to walk upright) and together Granny and Sydney have a good ole time together drinking tea (hot cocoa because as Sydney says "Tea is so gross!") and eating dainty little cookies. She loves every minute of it.

Sydney has been begging me to have a tea party with her. In some ways, I hated to do this because this was something special she and Mom do together. It's one of the many reasons Sydney loves to spend time at Mom and Dad's house. Mom is always doing special things with the kids and going out of her way to have fun with them when they come over. So, I was kind of putting the tea party idea off hoping she would forget about wanting to have one with me and that way it would continue to be something special just she and her granny did.

Not the case!

In some ways, Sydney is like an elephant in that when it's something she REALLY wants, she won't let it go.

A few weeks ago while out running errands, I went to Goodwill and found some sweet little teacups, saucers, and dessert plates at only fifty cents apiece. What's more, they were pretty similar to a teapot, sugar bowl, and creamer I had in the china cabinet.

While Sydney was busy doing other things, I set to work. I boiled some water, put some Vanilla Caramel teabags on a plate, poured some Vanilla Caramel creamer in the the creamer bowl, and some sugar in the matching sugar bowl. I had bought little miniature chocolate chip cookies (her favorite) and put out an antique table runner on the dining room table along with a candle. I laid out her Christmas dress on her vanity and then got myself ready. I put on a fancy, long, black dress I had worn in a wedding and pulled up my hair. With the help of Elijah, we got Sydney into her room without her knowing anything and gave her instructions on what she was to do.

When she stepped out of her room, she emerged this shy, quiet, 10 year old girl with wide eyes. She was very surprised and pleased when she saw my fancy dress, the set table, and the fancy dishes. Elijah pulled her chair out for her and then he and Noah excused themselves to the upstairs so Syd and I could have a "proper" tea party without the interruptions of loud and smelly boys! (ha!)

It was a success! It was lots of fun and the girl who thought tea was gross, had THREE cups of tea with cream and sugar then admitted that tea was a pretty great thing and asked if she could have some with her breakfast the next morning.

It was such fun to spend a few minutes creating a memory I doubt she will forget anytime soon. Maybe this will be a tradition she will carry on if she has a daughter of her own.

After we cleaned up, changed back into our play clothes, and put everything away we played some Mario Party 8 on the Wii with the boys. It turned out that our rainy, dreary day turned into one of the most fun we had together.