Yay for Girl Time! This is one of the things I love about having a daughter: getting to revisit my own childhood and do the things I loved doing or never got to do. Don't get me wrong, I love my boy. He is my first born and will always have a special piece of my heart that no one else can have. And I have a feeling that, at thirteen or fourteen, he won't be standing at the top of the stairs screaming "I HATE YOU!" until his throat bleeds. Nope. That's a teenage girl thing. Maybe that's why I'm trying to squeeze in these "special moments" while I can.
Let me e'splain: On Sunday, Val and Trav drove to the Confluence to go fishing. Since we were spending the day together, Riley declared "Girl Time" and produced a formidable list of things to accomplish. First on the list was a tea party. We have these once in a while, though mostly of the ersatz "pretend" sort. Riley has a lot of tea sets (I have a problem, okay?) and most of them are small and cute. We drink invisible tea and sample invisible treats. This tea party, however, called for something really special. I brought down the good tea set--a demitasse set I bought in an antique store when Riley was a baby for just this sort of occasion*--washed it and set the table. I had bought cookies to eat but Riley insisted on making cupcakes and so we spent the better part of the morning baking and frosting. I made pink lemonade "tea" and we had our tea party. Looking back, I wish I had let her invite a friend, but I wasn't up for cleaning the house or dealing with another kid on the weekend so it was just us. It was a great way to spend a part of the afternoon.
Here are the cupcakes that Riley frosted and decorated. I was impressed by how careful she was. Notice how precisely each individual sprinkle was arranged. OCD or just a byproduct of the fact that, by the time she got the cupcake frosted the icing was too dry to catch any of the sprinkles? Hmmmm. . .And notice, please, the cute frog plate that the cupcakes are on. I got two of these at a local antique store for two bucks each. One is a little cracked but they were so darn cute. And, hello! Frogs! If there had been owl plates I would have probably peed my pants.
*I only had a tiny china tea set when I was little, doll sized, not even big enough for my tiny fingers. I always wanted a "real" tea set that I could have actual tea in. Maybe that's why I collect tea pots and teacups and why my daughter has seven tea sets herself. I can't resist them.
