Over the Memorial Day Week-End, our family went Jeeping in Moab, Utah. One day after coming in off the trail, we browsed in the shops for t-shirts (a must-have for our kids . . . ). One store had a plethora of delightful teapots — Garfield teapots, toad teapots, elephant teapots, ladybug teapots, rooster teapots, Victorian looking teapots, and much more. (Click on the Garfield picture to the left to see a larger picture.)

I stood there for over 15 minutes admiring, debating, gazing, enjoying. I walked away. I went back to the display.  I walked away.

Karen, the mother of our daughter-in-law, has had tea parties with her granddaughters. I think that sounds like such great fun that I want to do with my grandchildren. So far, my grandchildren consists of a three-month old grandson. He can’t quite hold a teacup just yet . . . Do you think a grandson would enjoy a tea party with his grandmother? Probably not. That is why I left the store empty handed.

Through the years, Karen has had tea parties for her daughter and for her granddaughters. Last year she had one for her granddaughter and 21 of her granddaughter’s closest friends. Twenty-one CLOSEST friends?? I’m lucky to have 2-3 close friends . . .

Here are some of the things Karen has done at her tea parties.

Karen made a sheet cake and then used cookie cutters to cut out different little cake shapes. She froze the tiny cake shapes to make it easier to frost. She melted frosting (the kind that you get in plastic tubs at the grocery store) and poured it over the little cakes. This formed a thin layer of icing. As the frosting cooled, it also became firm and wasn’t gooey soft. She added decorations like cake glitter to make them fancy.

She has also served small grapes and home made trail mix of M&M candies, Pepperidge Farm Gold Fish, and raisins. She put the trail mix in small little nut cups. Once, she had found an inexpensive piñata that she turned into a Cheshire cat. She served different types of juice in tiny paper cups (instead of tea cups for the little guests).

She has had other tea parties besides this recent one. If the tea party was in the winter, she served hot cocoa. Sometimes the tea party would be as simple as spreading a lace table cloth over an ottoman and serving juice and tiny cakes and sandwiches (cut with cookie cutters) or tiny pies. Karen has used a butterfly cookie cutter to cut out sandwich shapes. Sometimes the sandwiches had sandwich meat in them and sometimes they were just peanut butter and jam sandwiches. Sometimes she made Jell-O jigglers to go along with the sandwiches.

Karen said that she shops around at thrift stores for different tea pots and cups so that she can have them on hand. She has different colored pots for different colored juices (apple, orange, grape, etc.).

Other tea party activities have included watching the video of Alice in Wonderland, decorating hats with ribbons and flowers, and playing croquet with pink flamingo mallets. She has drawn a picture of the Cheshire cat and they have pinned the grin (or nose) on the cat. She has drawn Alice in Wonderland characters as yard decorations that pointed the way to the party in the back yard. One time, Karen found inexpensive Alice in Wonderland velvet pictures for the kids to paint. (She said that you could just print out the figures on paper for them to paint, too.)

Karen is very talented and creative — and a very fun grandmother! I hope her ideas of a tea party will be something that you can do with your grandchildren.

If you have had tea parties for your granddaughters (or daughters), please share your ideas of what you have done!

Have a fun tea party!
Digi-Gram