Tea Parties in Springtime

Although it was short-lived (we have been pushing 90 here in Birmingham for the past week), I feel like we took FULL advantage of the perfect spring weather we did have. Each day, I watched as the big tree in the backyard went from speckled, bright green to full-grown leaves. The Bradford Pear in the front-yard transformed from solid white flowers to deep, green leaves, and the dogwoods burst into brilliant bloom. All of the beauty combined with the perfect 70 degree weather and gentle breezes begged Pace and I to set up residence in the yard.

If that was going to happen, Jeremiah and I had some nurturing to do to make our backyard a fun place to be. Moogie and Papa gave Pace a sand-box, a mini-table with a striped umbrella, and a playhouse. We have created a magnificent play area, where we’ve hosted some sweet tea parties over the past month. One day, we had a special treat, because Aunt Kiki made some cupcakes especially for Pace. She learned how to make them from Paula Dean, and she surpassed even Paula’s great talents in my opinion. So, we invited our neighbor friends (Caroline, Natalie, Noah, and their Mommies) over one sunny afternoon for a special tea party.

Lauren brought the tea, and I set up my blue and white china at the grown-up table. Then, we placed all the little guys around Pace’s table and passed out the multi-colored, hand-decorated cupcakes (Pace’s even had her name written on the top). We THOUGHT that we, the Mommies, would sneak back to our quaintly set table to enjoy a quiet cup of tea and cake while listening to the water trickle down our beloved mountain stream (that we built :)). It didn’t take very long to see that sandy hands, cupcakes, and cute outfits don’t mix very well. Everybody was stripped down to their skivvies, and the baby tea party moved from the canopied baby table, to the water hose for a rinse down, to the mud puddle that the water hose created. Needless to say, our tea got a bit cold, and by the time they were happily playing in the mud, they noticed we were eating more cupcakes and chants of “Bite?!” “Bite?!” began to be heard at each knee. So, our quiet little tea party wasn’t quite as quiet as it was on the days when we gave the little ones a Ziploc filled with goldfish and sat them in the sand box, but it was a lot more memorable. This day was too cute to use only one picture, so I am breaking my own rule and adding some extras. As you can see, I am sure all of our little guys would join me in a big fat, “Thanks Aunt Kiki!”