The Tea Party Report - Part 2: The Fun

All Photos by Jud Davis

We've covered the food. Now we should talk about the fun that was had during the tea party. I cannot lie...I was witness to much giddiness in the little girls' dress-up room! There were princess dresses galore...and fairy wands and sweet little shoes that were still too big for some of the tiniest girls. I sooo wish I had video to prove this, but my 2-year-old friend Ava aptly demonstrated the term "frolicking" in her baby blue Cinderella dress. She was singing and flinging her arms wide...and just enjoying being a girl. It was incredibly cute and sweet and adorable. Seriously, you've got to trust me on this. =)

This is Ava...she has become such a funny little, sweet little girl. Imagine the frolicking. Smiling yet? ;)

This is her sister, Ella - and their mama, Ashley.

All three of these girls make me laugh very hard. I love being around them...and their daddy/husband, Ethan. He's pretty amusing, too. Ashley and Ethan have been trying to train Ella and Ava to call us "Miss Kristen" and "Mr. Jeremy." Sometimes it comes out right and sometimes it comes out "Mr. Kristen" and "Miss Jermy." (Yes, the extra "e" is often missing in Jeremy's name.) We're around them so often that Ella couldn't understand why they had to use these extra titles for us...

"But why, Mommy?"
"Because they're not actually in our family."
"But why? Why aren't they in our family?"

Some things are hard to understand, Ella. This is the beginning of many things that don't make sense. ;)

This is another of mine and Jeremy's favorite little friends, Tessa.

She's the niece of my cousin Adam's fiancee' Tosha, on the right. My aunt Becky is on the left. These three had a big time at the tea party. =) Tessa loved dressing up, too, and seeing what all else she could get into...like making the butterfly wands, which were precious, and making paperdolls, which are always popular. At some point I was handed Tessa's paperdoll, which I promptly held against me while I was talking to someone or another...not even realizing that it was a newly glued design...and then belatedly realizing that I had glue and silver sequins now attached to the top of my dress. It was just beautiful. Really impressively bedazzled.

Here are some little ladies designing their paperdolls and butterfly wands...

And here are some more pictures that fall into the "Fun" category...pink canopies definitely fall into the "Fun" category, don't you think?

Notice the pretty butterfly wands...

Learning to candlewick, a form of white-on-white embroidery...

If it weren't the teacup for a nose, I'd say that this is definitely our preacher, Daniel, and his wife Heather's little girl, Haven. But with the strategically placed teacup, one can never tell for sure...

I can tell you with great certainty that it is delightfully fun to simply sit and relax a tea table...

And mingle with other ladies...friends old and new. That reminds me of a little song we used to sing in Scouts..."Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other, gold." 

Hmmm...hokey but true. Is it the hokier it is, the truer it is? If so, that song is very, very true...

Love these pictures! By the way, any of these pictures (candids or portraits) can be purchased by guests at this website: http://photos.fhu.edu/Associates/2009-10. You can buy different sizes and everything!

Thanks to Jud Davis, for capturing the essence of our tea party! By the way, that's Jud's little girl Cecily on the left in that last picture. She's a sweetie, as is her friend, Anna, on the right. =)

More to come - Part III: The Floods, or - A Change in Plans; 

Part IV: The Tea Boutique;

and Part V: The Pictures