Tea Party Time!

We invited a few kids over today for a tea party and guess what? It was a lot of fun!  

Today's Menu:

• Hot mint tea with milk and sugar

• Lemonade with strawberries

• Fruit salad

• Finger sandwiches: butter and jam, cream cheese, American cheese and bologna for my son who loves balogna and ate all of them

• Lovely homemade cookies brought by a guest 

• Decorate-your-own mini-cupcakes: vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting and assorted sprinkles

• Outdoor play time and a big glass of water!

Highlights:

• The children asking for and passing the milk and sugar around

• My son bragging that his twin sister had come up with the idea for a tea party

• The kids generally being very polite to each other and me

Lowlights:

• "Let's chase the cat!" (I didn't say they were saints. They're 5.)

• Actually, that's the only one I can think of. The kids were sweet!

Writing place cards

Next time we *might* even send out invitations. I think we can pull it off! 

Oh, one last thought: At first, my daughter said, "Girls only!" And I thought about it for a minute and then said no. Here's why: in my experience kids are segregated by gender more and more these days, not less and less. I am totally not down with that. I get that a lot of girls like to play mainly with girls and a lot of boys like to play mainly with boys, and that's fine with me. And I can't control what the kids do when I'm not around. But I want my kids to know that EVERYONE is invited to play with us and we don't exclude ANYONE, not based on gender or anything else. (Except being mean. I don't make my kids play with kids who are mean to them.) 

OK, off my soap box. Back to the tea party. Ta!

Baby Hippo likes a piece of apple on her cupcake.