Tea for Two

My friend Mindy recently came up with a cunning plan to have a surprise tea party for Penny and her daughter, LC. The plan involved covertly packing our girls' respective fancy dresses in our diaper bags and keeping the whole junket a secret. Penny and I spend most of our time lazing around the house in our skivvies, so whenever we get dressed, she thinks it's a special occasion. So she said, "Where we going?" And I told her it was a surprise. This really piqued her interest and she asked 100 more times, "Where we going? A Prise?" Oh yes, the "Prise" of your life, kiddo.


Gimme some knuckles!

So Mindy and LC picked us up, and took us to LC's Grandma Georgia's house, who had prepared a feast fit for two little princesses, complete with miniature homemade frosted cupcakes and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches cut into the shapes of teddy bears. When I grow up, I want to be Grandma Georgia.


The feast.


These cupcakes are divine!

Incidentally, Georgia has a room in her house dedicated entirely to the whims of her grandchildren, with Raggedy Ann dollies and Fancy Nancy books, and tea sets, and fairy wings for dressing up. Now, I've said before I don't love the whole princess mentality, and I'm fully aware that I'm encouraging it. But seeing Penny playing dress-up with her friend while wearing fairy wings was one of the highlights of my summer. And Penny still talks about her "Prise" at "Grandma George's." That surprise is going to be hard to top.


Fairy wings! Eee!

Meanwhile, Penny and I still try to go to the library on my days off, and I'd been kicking around the idea of attending the Preschool Story Time instead of Book Baby, which is our usual haunt. I was worried Penny wouldn't like it as much, because Book Baby has short stories, lots of songs, and most importantly, bubbles. But it also has a lot of babies, and sometimes it can be a little hard to hear the stories and the music over the noisy baby ruckus.

So today, we tried the older group. I noticed most of the moms and dads were sitting toward the back or holding younger siblings, while the other kids were right up front. There was no way Penny was going to sit up there alone, so she sat on my lap and we participated together. The woman in charge read three entertaining stories involving funny birds: Boo Hoo Bird, Chick, and Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! The kids were enthralled. Next came the "Two Little Blackbirds" rhyme I had totally forgotten about, complete with felt blackbirds on popsicle sticks for each child to use, followed by some free play with instruments and streamers. In short, it was awesome. Penny was younger than many of the kids, but about the same age as some of the others. She's right in between the two story groups, so maybe coming to the preschool group will be good practice for school.

I'm so not ready to think about that yet.