When the Weather is BLAH

When the weather outside is frightful

And cabin fever is so not delightful,

And when you have no place to go,

Get a few of your favorite people in the whole world, and have a tea party!

Complete with lovely tablecloth, real China tea cups from Kenny's grandmothers (who both lived to be 96, by the way), Candy Cane Lane tea, and pretty little bowls of snacks. 

I used to hate the idea of tea parties, thinking of all that work I'd have to do just to have something hot to drink, for goodness sake.  I am so not a fancy person, I really prefer jeans and mugs to sticking my pinkie out and speaking with an English accent.  But thankfully over the years, my children have been exposed by neighbors and friends (thank you, Mrs. Barstad and Mrs. Lusk!) who showed them how to have a real tea party.  They come as they want, dressed up or not, with all sorts of wonderful accents.  Today we had a lovely lady with a southern drawl from Australia (still working on our geography). a spy from Czechoslovakia, a dyed-in-the-wool American, a princess who was NOT from Spain, and a little four year-old who just wanted to eat her snacks.

Bad lighting, I know.  But isn't she sweet?

My darling 14 year-old

Even squirrelly boys are welcome to our parties!

The snacks?  You won't find cucumber tea sandwiches or scones with lemon curd today.  But our girls did scrounge up some leftover quesedillas, cheese popcorn, Teddy Grahams, peanuts, and snowman shaped marshmallows.  Perhaps we'd change the menu up a bit for the Queen, but we sure had a lot of fun laughing away the gray skies and freezing snow!