MMP - Tea Party: Let Them Eat Cake!

I have had such a BLAST with this series! I hope it blesses you. I know that it has blessed me and helped remind me of some things **I** had forgotten! :) Be sure to scroll down to enter my giveaway from Tuesday!

(Pic of MM - 4yr at our tea. Kale is a wonderful garnish to use to serve salads and beans on - it is so curly, vibrant green and more hearty than lettuce.)

Food prep is another wonderful area to allow the children to participate. Look through tea books from the library and allow the girls to pick out what they would like to have. Keep in mind your theme (or lack of it for simplicity) and remind them of it. Here are some examples from the extravagant and fun to the simple and elegant:

All fans of Anne of Green Gables will remember the infamous Raspberry Cordial! I had always thought "I need to find a recipe for that...how fun it would be!" Well look no further! Recipes for SEVERAL different types of cordial! TOO FUN!!! This would be GREAT with/for the Avonlea Tea Party!!!

When we think of tea, we usually think of pretty pink roses and white everywhere, but what about a lovely fall tea?!?! I just love this! Those girls in warm clothing, the fallen leaves all around! And recipes too! Check it out! :) And check out this wonderful cabin woods tea!!

And I just LOVED this idea of a Sweet Tea. Look at those desserts and those colors! Desserts are really an easy thing for little girls to make. Especially the no bake ones! You can find LOTS of no bake recipes for desserts on the web.

One of the fellow Make Mine Pink Teas had a LOVELY afternoon tea with FRUIT! Check out how beautiful! I love the simple mug o' flowers! TOO CUTE! And what a wonderful idea to serve FRUIT! So many times we try to make things complicated by making mini-this and small that. Give your kids a melon baller and let them go at it! (And for fun, you can cut up a watermelon into a swan or a basket - this is especially great for older girls to try.) This is also the PERFECT theme for those unexpected guests you want to have to tea! Fruit is so easy --- especially strawberries! Why not make up some raw chocolate dip? 1/2 cup raw carob powder to 3/4 cup honey or raw agave nectar and stir. Fill small cups with a small amount of dip for each place setting. This is yummier than you think!

And probably the best and most important tea you can have. This sums it up perfectly!

And I am so thankful I found the Tea Party Girl who teaches you the art and beauty of the afternoon tea. Make sure you have some time (and a cup of tea!) to enjoy this in-depth blog!

And thanks to A Scrapbook of Inspiration for two WONDERFUL links:
Tea Parties For Children (previous link broken, click here for the archive)and Royal Tea Parties For Young Ladies.

And one more on Polite Table Behavior.

And as a favor to all who have joined in the blogsphere on the week of teas (either by hosting or by visiting), The wonderful ladies at What If...? have created a beautiful bookmark for everyone. (Edited note: the link for the bookmark is no longer working)

Thanks SO MUCH to Make Mine Pink for hosting this lovely week of teas!

MMP - Tea Party: Fancy Hats and White gloves

If you are coming here from the Make Mine Pink blog, WELCOME! I hope you will enjoy tea with me! :) Be sure to see previous posts. This is a week long tea! :) (And a giveaway too! Be sure to enter on Tuesday's post!) I have so enjoyed visiting the other teas!! Some of them are so very elegant while others are just plain FUN!!

Sometimes it is nice to come up with a theme, but it is not always necessary. Sometimes an unexpected guest comes over and you can invite them to tea! :) And without a theme, there is also no pressure on your guest to dress a certain way.

But it is oh so FUN to dress up! I love to collect fancy hats. You can find them at almost any thrift store. They are a bit more difficult to find at garage sales, but I have found a few. Fancy hats are so much fun! We wear them all the time (not just at our tea parties). Collecting them allows me to pick and choose which one to wear and which one to share! Imagine the fun your guests will have being able to pick a nice fancy hat to wear! While straw hats are nice, they seem to attract little feet which step on and break them easily. I highly encourage you to search out the fabric/ribbon/crocheted ones. There are also lots of free patterns on the web for you to make your own hat. (Pic of AA - 7yr)

You can also find those old bridesmaid dresses that no one ever got to wear again. Maybe you can fit in one or one of your guests can. But you can also allow your girls to wear them! And if you are a good seamstress (or know someone who is), you can alter the dress or make a new one! One of my friends has a daughter who made a dress for her sister using the skirt of one of these fancy dresses!

You can also find white gloves at most dollar stores now. I got a pair for each of my girls at the dollar store.

Of course, dressing up for tea is nice, but not if it is going to make your guests uncomfortable! Know who you are inviting and if they are the kind of person who would have the attire to dress up. And if not, then offer to let them borrow one of your dresses/hats, again, only if you know it will not offend them.

The main point of all this is not to show off. In fact, this can be used as an opportunity to teach them that beauty is the hidden person of the heart and not the outward adorning. But it is a good thing, especially in this day and age, to "walk feminine, talk feminine, smile and beguile feminine". In other words, it is important for our girls to LEARN TO BE FEMININE! And not just feminine, but modestly feminine - they need to learn to be ladies.

My girls get enough roughing around gardening, climbing trees, camping, hiking and the like. Dressing up for a tea party is a wonderful time/way to remind them of their femininity. And what a wonderful time to treat those shut-ins and elderly like ladies too. So even if you don't have the fancy dress, fancy hat and white gloves...encourage your girls and guests to dress up. Even if it is just for the party. :)

Tomorrow: Let Them Eat Cake!

MMP - Tea Party: Decorations and Favors

If you are coming here from the Make Mine Pink blog, WELCOME! I hope you will enjoy tea with me! :) Be sure to see Monday and Tuesdays post. This is a week long tea! :)

So many times when I used to think of a tea party, I used to think of all the pretty decorations. But don't think that has to break the bank. The best way I have found to decorate inexpensively is to allow your daughters to do it.

First, they need the practice. What better way for your child to learn than to do it herself? One day she will have a home of her own and need to know how to decorate it. And secondly, you have no idea how many nice and pretty things you have lying around the house that the girls have a way of finding that you never knew you had (or even thought was pretty) until you let three little girls go searching. LOL! :D

Allow her to pick out the flowers (real or silk) for the centerpiece and help her to arrange them. Talk about how you don't want the flowers too high because you want to be able to see each other across the table, so a small, basket full would be perfect. Maybe you can even look through a book at the library on flower arranging.

We recently bought a HUGE bag of silk flowers at a thrift store. We put them all in basket and allow the children to pull out for them and decorate up the table for tea or dinner. Here is the centerpiece we used for our tea. It was arranged by AA (7yr).

Once, when the repair man came over, my daughter covered the table in her favorite bed sheet, took a cup of water and cut flowers from the backyard and placed them in the cup. All for the repair man! LOL!!

Did she just say favorite bed sheet?

Yes, I did just say favorite bed sheet. :D Allow her to take her favorite bed sheet and use it for a cloth covering for the table. If it gets tea on it, it can be washed! And if nothing else, you can always buy another sheet. But the training and keeping your daughter's heart here is more important than the cost of any sheet.

Try not to limit your child here too much. Remember, the point is not to be perfect, the point is to encourage, teach and train her. Are you training her that perfection is more important than people? While we want it to look nice, and we want our children to do their best, perfection is not what we are aiming for. We are aiming to teach our children to do their best for God. And if my daughter sees God's beauty in the rosey bed sheets, and spreads it out smoothly on the table, accompanied by a small cup of flowers and does it to the best of her ability with the heart of a servant ... goal attained.

You can also encourage them to MAKE the decorations. Maybe they can make a nice quilt to cover the table, or crochet doilies to put under the sandwiches. Even those paper circles intertwined with one another strung up across the ceiling can be pretty AND make your child feel happy she accomplished and participated in something so beautiful.

White "Christmas" lights are a wonderful way to light up and bring ambiance to your party without a lot of cost (or the fire hazard of candles and children). You can always find these really cheap at the after Christmas sales (and sometimes even garage sales).

And everyone loves to take home a little gift, aka favors. My girls LOVE to give gifts to people who come to our house. They will actually fill up a small brown bag of items for our guest to take home with them. All things of their own, or things they have made. My daughter is currently learning to crochet and practiced her chain stitch by making necklaces for everyone. It was really nice! I still have mine (and my mom's). LOL!! :)

Also, it is so fun to create place settings!

For our place cards, we made these adorable crocheted dress bookmarks and printed out names and made them into scrolls (if my handwriting were better we would have hand written them). A place setting AND a favor in one! And about the elderly guest who can no longer read? Put a small magnet on the back for her fridge!

Don't know how to crochet and want some of these for your tea party? Just ask! I will be happy to do a custom order! Or check out my store to see if I have any in stock.

I hope you are enjoying this series as much as I am. It was truly a joy to do this with my girls and I love teaching them through something so fun and feminine. And I am so enjoying it with you!

Tomorrow: Fancy Hats and White Gloves

MMP - Tea Party: Hospitali-tea :)

If you are coming here from the Make Mine Pink blog, WELCOME! I hope you will enjoy tea with me! :)

Hospitality is a Christian virtue that has been all but forgotten.

"For many people, hospitality is practiced only to meet their own social needs. Sometimes it is a self-glorifying show to impress other's with one's home or entertainment skills. In contrast, Christian hospitality is humble, sacrificial service." - Alexander Strauch

I love the definition of hospitality. I love using the 1828 version of the Webster's Dictionary. Most all of it's definitions are defined by Scripture.

HOSPITAL'ITY, n. [L. hospitalitas.] The act or practice of receiving and entertaining strangers or guests without reward, or with kind and generous liberality.

It is so easy to get wrapped up in what we think hospitality is, that we give our children the wrong impression. I know that I grew up thinking hospitality was only acceptable if the house was spotless and you knew everyone coming and you only invited the right kind of people. And of course came the praises with showing off your house and collection of board games. And even then, hospitality was reserved for special occasions: birthday and holidays.

Now that I know that is not the kind of hospitality God wants me to show, it is my pleasure to show my daughters how God would have us be hospitable to one another. For in doing so, you might be entertaining angels...

Don't just invite kids to your tea party! While an all kid tea party is sweet and fun, there are plenty of shut-ins, widows, and elderly who would be so glad to come to your daughter's tea party! They need the love of Christ shown to them just as much as the little children do.

And don't allow a house that is in less than perfect condition keep you from hospitality! You can keep the tea to one room in your house that you clean. OR you can host the party on the front porch. OH how I wish we would bring back the front porch! Grab one of those tables you always see at garage sales for $1 (the round ones with three legs). Cover and bring out your chairs! :) You can also have it in your garden or in the backyard. (I will talk more about decorating tomorrow.)

I think a tea party is a wonderful way for children to learn to show Christian hospitality.

• Make sure to watch your guests cup to see if they need a refill/top off.
• Ask them about themselves and talk very little about your own self. (If you need help with this, as we all must learn before we can teach, allow your children to see you take interest in the lives of others. A great book to help you is 201 Great Questions by Jerry D. Jones.)
• Serve others before yourself.
• Respect your elders and respect others.
• Give glory and honor to God for His blessings (instead of taking credit for them yourself).

I so hope that you will take the time to plan a tea party with your girls and invite an elderly woman from church (or maybe an elderly neighbor that doesn't get out much).

Again, we cannot teach our daughters something we do not ourselves know. I was never taught hospitality. But here are a few books that will help teach you so you can teach your daughters:

The Hospitality Commands by Alexander Strauch
The Personal Touch: Encouraging Others Through Hospitality by Crabb
L'Abri by Edith Schaeffer
Hospitality With Confidence by Pittman
We Didn't Know They Were Angels: Hospitality Even When It's Inconvenient by Doris Greig
Be My Guest by Vivian Anderson Hall

AND one of my favorite
Open Heart, Open Home by Mains
I am giving away a copy of this wonderful book. To be entered, simply comment on this post that you want to be entered. Advertise on your blog, and get a second entry! Winner to be announced Saturday morning/afternoon. Entries accepted until winner announced.

Tomorrow: Decorating

MMP - Tea Party: The Cups and Saucers

I am so excited for a full week of tea parties!!!!

If you are coming here from the Make Mine Pink blog, WELCOME! I hope you will enjoy tea with me! :)

I am not sure what the others are doing, but being a mom of three little girls (and one boy who I am sure will get dragged into tea parties and dress-up by his sisters despite his protest), I am taking a different approach to the tea party. I hope you will indulge me.

I want to share ways to have fun tea parties with your children, teaching them grace and responsibility, without breaking the bank! :)

First, you need to have the tea set! :)

I used to buy all the plastic tea party sets. And while those are cute and fine, I really started feeling like I wanted MORE for my daughters. The plastic tea sets were played with a lot at first, but even with my encouragement, the tea parties waned and I found myself looking for something more. Especially after reading this article about teaching responsibility using a real tea set.

What better way to train up your daughter to have a proper tea party than with a proper tea set?! :)

Now I am not saying to go out and buy a tea set. That would be way too expensive. And who says that it all has to match perfectly? A friend of my mother's has a different cup and saucer for each guest at her table. Having tea with her was so fun! There was a story behind each place setting! It was so fun to hear the stories behind each tea cup as we drank tea!

So what I have started doing is shopping for tea cups and saucers with my girls. They are only 7yr, 5yr and 4 yr, but it is so FUN to see them get so excited about tea cups! We mostly shop garage sales, thrift stores and recently I started taking my oldest to the antique stores. I can just imagine a few years from now, all us girls sitting around the table drinking tea and talking about how much fun we had buying such and such cup at the antique store! :)

I know that it is also scary to allow your children to hold REAL cups and saucers (compared to plastic), but I cannot tell you the pride and joy they have on their face as they accomplish holding and having tea like a Mommy!! And they are being trained to be responsible young ladies.

So even if you do not have a tea set passed down to you from your grandma, or an expensive set you bought, remember you can still have a very beautiful (though very shabby chic) tea set one cup and saucer at a time. :)

Tomorrow: Teaching Our Daughters Hospitali-TEA! :)

Free Stuff For Moms and Kids

Sorry no Family Fun (click on sidebar for JUST FOR FUN for ideas) or Saturday Sweethearts (click on sidebar ROMANCE for ideas). Hopefully I will get back to those next week.

Those of you who read my blog know I LOVE FREE stuff!

First there was FREE BOOKS via PaperBack Swap.

Now, using the same sort of program, there is FREE STUFF for moms and kids via Kizoodle!

AND if you sign up using my referral code, you get 2 EXTRA FREE CREDITS!!! A nice incentive to remember to use my referral code. :)

REFERRAL CODE: DZ2GZ3

You get 5 free credits just for signing up. The two extra for using my referral code brings you up to SEVEN CREDITS! :)

I have a few toys that did not sell in the last garage sale that I could use this for. And the great thing about it, is you don't get just one credit per item (like with PaperBack Swap. You decide what your item is worth and get that many credits!! :) Check it out. And please be sure to use my referral code!!! I only wish someone had referred ME so I could have gotten an extra two free credits!!! :)

Yesterday's Doctor Visit And Where To Go From Here

The doctor was WONDERFUL with baby JJ!! Checked him from head to toe. And even told me that he was doing well developmentally as well as nutritionally (as far as he could tell, there are certain signs of malnutrition and JJ showed the opposite of those signs).

We do not immunize, which the doctor said was a good thing because it allows us to rule that out immediately as there are so many bad things (formaldehyde, etc.) in immunizations that could be the culprit and could have made things worse (most of his patients are autistic children).

Now to the bad news, some thing is keeping baby JJ from growing. He is 16 months and 16 pounds. He is a tiny little thing and at this point we just have no clue as to why.

And that means a massive blood test. His veins are so tiny that they might collapse if his blood is not drawn perfectly. AND they need a large amount of blood to run all the tests needed. And because his veins are so tiny, it is best to do it all at once than come back again and again. SOOOOOoooooo, if you could PLEASE PRAY that we are able to find someone who has experience drawing blood from TINY babies. We appreciate it.

The good things about the blood test for allergies compared to the scratch test (which I went through several times growing up) are several:

Firstly, you don't have a baby with an itchy back who doesn't understand why his back itches and is miserable and crying.

Secondly, the scratch test (where they prick/scratch sections all over your back, apply small amounts of irritants to each prick and then wait for a reaction) really only tests your sensitivity to a small degree. The blood test can not only find what you are truly allergic to, but can find out what you are allergic to that you might not show an immediate reaction to (you remember the baby food books told you when introducing a new food wait 3-5 days for a reaction, well the blood tests finds out what those 3-5 day ones are).

Thirdly, you can be sensitive to something, but your reaction would not be physical, but emotional. Moms who have kids with gluten sensitivities (like two of my children do) KNOW that a certain food can make your child completely irritable and hyper.

I am so thankful to be able to see this new doctor and get this test done. It will allow me to know for certain what foods baby JJ can NOT have, so I can avoid those. But just as important is to know what foods he CAN have so I can add more foods to his diet (without fear) that will possibly help to bulk him up.

His Mercy Is Never Ending

I am so amazed at how wonderful God is to me. I can forget my quiet time with Him and put Him on the back burner (sadly so). And yet He still loves and cares for me. His mercy is NEVER ENDING! Amen and AMEN!

As you know, Baby JJ had a severe allergic reaction recently. He has been throwing up foods for a while now and had two other reactions (not nearly as severe as this last). There is a doctor here that is an answer to prayer. But the soonest opening they had was Oct 30. I grabbed it knowing that I knew God wanted baby JJ to be seen sooner. So I prayed.

I am so thankful for God blessing my life with children. I never knew what it really meant to be on my knees until God gave me children. Either I am convicted through them, or praying for them.

"Lord, if it is your will, allow JJ to get an appointment sooner than Oct 30. You know how urgent I feel this is. Give me peace to accept the time of the appointment and wisdom to do what I need to until that time."

Not five minutes later, we received a call saying they had a cancellation and would we be able to come in TOMORROW at 9AM!!!

I leave you with this thought which was posed to me today:
Do you have God just for your salvation, or do you have Him for your Lord? Are you surrendered to Him truly and fully?

Tuesday Link Up

What Mom does NOT know the brothers who do the blog The Rebelution?!?!?! LOL!! They have a blog that talks more about Huckabee and a GREAT VIDEO that you must see (even if you THINK you know who you want to vote for (this is aimed at other Republicans who might be voting for RP).

The importance of holding to the BIBLE as the only standard when raising our children said better than I ever could.

HT: Making It Home

I am so thankful to the Lord that He has blessed us not only with one, but four beautiful and health children. I know that there are some out there that are unable to have children (a painful subject that I do not even know how to begin to broach). But maybe this song can help.

HT: Making It Home

Looking for a gift for a new (or second or third time) mom? A new mom might not realize the GENIUS in burp cloths, but the seasoned mom will thank you again and again!!! And so will the new mom once she realizes how wonderful these are! OK, so enough said. Go check it out! there is a video to show you how they work.

With all the canning go on (and yes, even my HUSBAND has just finished canning), you might be interested in knowing that there is a pectin that allows you to make jam using LESS SUGAR! You can read more about that from The Family Homestead Makes Jam. Pictures of the Orchard Butter (YUMMO) that my beloved made to come!!!

Oh this is TOO COOL! Old Time Cookbook For Girls from the Gutenberg Project!!!

HT: Unfolding Grace

I came across this site which is very interesting. It is the story about one woman's journey to find out more about fashion and why women kill themselves for it AND does it even matter? She made herself a dress (yes, there is a pattern) and wore the same dress 365 days - one full year (and if you are wondering - like I did - yes, she washed it). :) Very interesting read. (And if you are wondering, yes, I saved the pattern - I am a free pattern junkie!)

Saturday Sweethearts: Friendly Encouters

It is so important to my husband that he and I are friends. Of course, he is my best friend, and I can say that with all honesty. But to him, friendship is more than just being able to open up and share your inner most self. It is DOING things.

After this past week of frustration with the court case and baby JJ and his allergic reaction to eggs, I really wanted to do something fun with one of my friends. She had invited me to go to the waterpark with her (I do not get to waterparks very often because my husband does NOT like waterparks). I thought it was a great idea!!

But my husband had other things in mind. He wanted to go to the State Fair. And he wants to go to a local Apple Orchard (a family tradition for 9 years). Now to ME, the farm is open many more weeks and the State Fair is open a few more days, but the waterpark closes this weekend.

But my husband shared how he really wanted to be with me and our family. What woman in her right mind can resist THAT? :D So instead of pouting about not going to the waterpark, I get on my knees and thank God for blessing me with such a wonderful husband. A man who loves to spend time with me and his family.

This is just one instance of a time when my husband wanted to do something "friendly" like with me. It speaks his love language, and anytime I can fulfill a love language, I do my best to.

What is something "friendly" that your husband likes to do?Does he like to go hiking or camping? Maybe he wants to go to the baseball game? While it may not be your cup of tea, I guarantee you it will be worth it for you to find out what he likes and then make his interests your own. You never know...one day you might find your husband just taking interest in one of YOUR interests because he sees how much FUN it is to take interest in your spouses interests!!! :) But even if he doesn't, at least you will be spending more time together. :)

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Remember, THESE ARE IDEAS FOR YOU (not your husband). YOU are to romance your husband! I was inspired to do these Saturday Sweethearts based on a book called Romancing Your Husband by Debra White Smith. PLEASE get a hold of this book and read it. It is a really good book and will really change your life. :)