Sunday, September 11, 2011

The Festivities

After being escorted into the tea room and seated at the table,


the official tea party began.


There was a wide variety of food


and plenty of tea to go around. 


Joe prepared the cheese plate and it was by far the most spectacular of all the dishes.



Our tea party guests also dined on other little known tea party food like, pigs in a blanket, grapes, butterfly fruit pizzas, cheese sandwiches and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the shape of flowers.


The tea was also served cold and was sweetened with fruit juices and was eventually replaced in all tea cups with water before the tea was over, as our guests' palette preferred the latter.



After each guest was filled to the brim with food and drink, we painted fingernails.


The girls requested that each nail be painted a different color. 


Once the original coat of polish was dry, we applied white designs over top on some of the nails.  Favorite requests were hearts, smiley faces, and flowers.


The end result was sheer beauty.


Once the nails were complete




we brought out the birthday cake


Xandra made a birthday wish


and blew out all five candles.



Unlike most tea parties, ours came complete with entertainment.


The guests gave our entertainer


rave reviews.


I gave him the boot when he brought out knives for juggling.


We played some high stakes tea party bingo


where everyone won but Joe.



After bingo, Xandra opened her presents from Jillian.


She was delighted to receive Connect Four and a raccoon.


Jillian's mommy also gave Xandra the box set of Little House on the Prarie.


We look forward to reading it together!  After Jillian and Lauren left, all the girls settled in for naptime, I cleaned the kitchen and Xandra and Joe decided to work on professor phonics.  A reading program he had used to learn to read when he was a child.


After naptime refreshed the girls they were again ready to play


and open a few more presents.


Among Xandra's favorites were a Furreal Honey Bear from Grandma Mary,


a butterfly pillow pet from Grandma DeShon, and a baby bee pillow pet from Grandma Mary,


handmade twirly skirts from our neighbor, Ms. Carol and Marbleworks from mommy and daddy.



It was a fantastic day and now we have an official five year old strutting around our house. 
  Happy Birthday, sweet porcupine of mine! 

Every Since

Happy 1st Birthday, my sweet Binturong!


I've loved you since the moment I first saw you. 


And I've been amazed by you every since.





Saturday, September 10, 2011

PreParty Tea Party

The week of Xandra's fifth birthday brought much excitement to our home.  On the Tuesday before her birthday, we survived our second Maryland earthquake, a 5.8 on the richter scale.  We also endured the joys of the stomach flu travelling through all six family members and awoke on Satruday morning (her birthday) anticipating the effects of hurricane Irene to hit our area in the late afternoon.  Despite the added drama and setbacks to birthday week, the celebration of Xandra's fifth birthday continued as scheduled.  The morning began with waffles and milk enjoyed with our special day cup and plate.


At 10 o'clock Xandra's friend, Jillian (and her mom, Lauren), arrived for a tea party birthday party.  We had invited another friend, Ava, but she got sick the morning of the party with the aforementioned stomach flu and we were forced, after some tears and explaining, to celebrate without her.


To start, the girls decorated some fruit pizza shaped like butterflies. The adults helped too.


Next we gave each girl hats, gloves and purses and they decorated them to their liking with ribbons, flowers and sparkly gems.




Even daddy, as most daddys of three little girls do, got into the decorating.


Everyone's bear got a newly decorated hat, too.


Once the girls and their bears were all decked out, 


they headed off to a bear tea party in our sunroom while the adults worked to finish up last minute food preparations for the real tea party.
 


Once all the preparations had been made, 


each girl was escorted, with bear, into the tea room.

Part II continued tomorrow