The Fairy Tea Party

We went to Tahoe last month, and I had brought along my Family Fun magazine to read in the car. Livi was looking through it one day when we were up there and she saw something in there that I hadn't come across yet. She called me over and said, "Mom...there's something in here that I really want, and I hope you say 'yes'!" I was thinking it must be some toy or craft or something, but it was an article about this fairy tea party that some little girls had. The pictures showed white toule hanging down from the ceiling, with pretty flowers attached to it, that came down and surrounded a table that was set with a pretty tablecloth and yummy food and tea. And the girls were dressed up and had their hair done up with fancy headbands, and when she saw this, she just "had to have it!"

The look on her face as she was absorbing all this while looking at the pictures was SO cute. She had that page bookmarked and constantly referred back to it. When we got home, she carried it around all the time and slept with the magazine in her bed open to that page, and wanted to know when we were going to do our own tea party.

So we talked about it a lot, and I thought it would be really fun to actually indulge her, so I told her we'd put it on the calendar so we could plan for it and get everything together that we needed to make it as special as she was hoping it would be. She just wanted our family to be there, and I was ordered to dress up fancy, too. She had in mind exactly what she wanted to wear, and how she wanted her hair done. Jason painted her nails in the colors she wanted, and applied sparkly powder to her her arms and neck. And of course, her new earrings would be a perfect addition to the attire.

She really wanted the toule to be part of the decorations, so we made a trip to the craft store and got 4 yards of toule (fortunately it was WAY cheaper than I had thought it was going into this). All week long she made decorations out of paper and markers and glitter and hung them up all over the walls in the playroom (her old room, baby's new room). We bought some silk flowers and attached them to the toule and hung it from the ceiling. It didn't quite drape down and around us or our table, because that would have been way more toule (and $) than I wanted to have/spend for this occasion, but it did look fun & pretty hanging above our table, and Livi was satisfied with it. :-)

We got out our small table and the plan was for us to kneel by it while we had our tea, so we got out a tablecloth and set the table with teacups and saucers and a small vase of the silk flowers and cloth napkins for everyone.

We prepared the food - chocolate dipped strawberries, sugar cookie star wands, cheese & crackers and grapes, and of course, the tea.

It was so cute to see her excitement during the several days that we were preparing for this day. She was so thrilled that we were actually doing it and making it look sort of like what she saw in the magazine. Fun memories were made that day, for sure.

Here are some pictures from the tea party. :-)

Pierced Ears

Olivia has been wanting to get her ears pierced for a little while now, but last week, she was really ready and kept asking if we could go and do it. We talked it over a lot and told her it would hurt, but just for a little bit, and that she'd have to keep the earrings in for a long time until the holes formed, and that we'd have to take good care of them, etc. She was determined and excited, and especially motivated by the "fairy tea party" we were planning for on the weekend....she wanted to be all dolled up for it. (another post on that coming soon)

So I took her to Claire's in the mall and we looked at all the earring options and she found the ones she wanted (diamonds of course! - the April birthstone, even though she was born in August, but they were the prettiest, I thought, too.) We walked around the mall for a little while until another gal showed up for work at Claire's so they could do both ears at the same time. We kept talking it over and she really wanted to get it done. It was the cutest thing to see her so excited for it. And the outfit she wore that day, wow, she's got an interesting sense of style, but she wore her favorite things and it just added to the experience so much. She's been ULTRA girly lately, it cracks me up.

So we went back to the store. She climbed up on the chair and held on to her babydoll tightly, a tad nervous, super shy, but very excited and determined. The did both ears at the same time and it was over so fast. She didn't even cry, but her face did get all red and she winced a little bit. She got a lollipop afterward and it was so cute to see her look in the mirror and see her pretty pierced ears. I think part of my heart was pierced at the same time! This was one of those experiences that she might remember forever and eventually tell her children about when she has to make the decision to let her daughter (Lord willing) pierce her ears. It's only the beginning of these types of situations, and this was a fun one. Hopefully she'll just keep it at that, no other piercings, tatoos, etc. till she's on her own. :-)

She's been so proud of her earrings and her ears are doing really well. No yukky crusties or anything, we're just taking good care of them and she's sure to remind me when I forget. :-)

the wince