Angel Tea Party in 30 Minutes or Less

Pace's dear friend (and our neighbor) Natalie turned four recently and was celebrating with an angel birthday party. Pace helped me come up with the idea of angel dresses for 1) the birthday girl's present and 2) for she and Dapples to wear as part of their costumes to the party. Unfortunately, these great ideas did not start taking shape until a few days before the party, sooo I was still stitching like a madwoman on Friday night when I got a text from Natalie's mom (Lauren) telling us that the birthday girl was horribly sick with a fever and the party would have to be post-poned to the next weekend...WHEN WE WERE GOING TO BE OUT OF TOWN. I think I was even more devasted than Pace was. All the cute dresses and nowhere to go.

So, to appease both of us, I told Lauren that as soon as Natalie felt better, we'd like to have an angel tea party at our house to celebrate (and wear those dad-gum dresses I'd spent all that time on :)).

Do things ever slip your mind??? We'd set the date for the mini-party. We'd talked about it several times. Still, somehow, when the morning rolled around and we were all still finishing up a late breakfast at 9:30, it hit me that we were throwing a tea party, in 30 minutes, and I had done NOTHING to get ready. Now, I sure didn't want to be the one to face the birthday girl who came over for the SECOND party she was supposed to be having that had been way-layed. I turned it into high gear. I said a quick prayer of thanks that I try to always keep a box of yellow cake mix on hand...and there was half a tub of icing wedged in the back of the refridgerator.Then, I started picking up the knee-deep toys in the playroom so that we could actually get to the kids table without breaking something. I thought I remembered seeing a pink candle in the bottom of my purse at some point...AWESOME (what does that tell you about the state of my purse?). Next, I gave a nod of thanks to my mother-in-law, who has taught me by example that beautiful things are no good if you don't enjoy them. I applied this theory to my china and decided I'd rather have it be broken being used by some little girls who I'd made feel extra special, than be kept perfectly safe always resting in my china cabinet. (Pace ran out and picked that flower/weed from our yard...what a sweet little touch)And there we were. Just in the nick of time. A tea party for three little angels.This is how we handle hot tea for little lips. Pour it hot. Add lots of cream and sugar. Then dump in a couple of ice cubes...perfect.Mary Aplin wasn't so sure about how to handle her fancy cup that didn't have a lid or a straw. She decided the doggy lap was the best option. I don't know if they had as much fun as I did...but I think so.