Birthdays: String Bean turns 11 and hosts a party!

Our millenial baby, String Bean, turned 11 on the 1st ... we had a small family party Tuesday night but she really just wanted a party with her girl-friends so today, we sent the boys off (dh took them to see Rango!) and Max was relegated to the crate. 

Our "theme" was A Royal Garden Tea.

We set the table with String Bean's birthday gift from us:  a beautiful, real tea-set -- a service for 4 (including cups, saucers, luncehon plates, dessert plates & bowl and a tea pot).   The runner underneath the tea-pot is one that her grandmother sent her that her mother had stitched ... so it's old as well as gorgeous! 

The wooden flowers in the wine-glass/water-glass are the place-cards (with a magnet on the back for the girls to bring home and use).   For party-activities we painted flower-pots (which then became their "goodie bag"); a wooden initial letter and made fabric-covered scrapbooks (filled with traditional black thick paper).  BTW, in the picture below, that is a real baby sleeping -- he was the only male allowed to come to the party (the youngest brother of one of the guests) and he was a perfect guest -- slept the whole time!

We ate fancy, traditional tea finger-sandwiches (cucumber, honey-walnut, and ham-roll-ups), homemade blueberry muffins and cheddar muffins, crudite tray, deviled eggs (String Bean's favorite!), and a hot-tea punch (served in the tea cups, of course).  No birthday around here would be complete without a chocolate cake of some kind:  String Bean asked for the old Betty Crocker "chocolate joy cake" with chocolate fudge frosting!

Wow, what an afternoon.  But String Bean is such a blessing to so many ... every bit of work and worry was worth it!

God bless you, String Bean.  Happy 11th and may you have many, many more such glorious (but not so rainy) days!
 

More about tea and cakes ...

A week ago, I mentioned a post from the lovely Pious Sodality of Church Ladies and the tea/barbeque their parish holds for young people. Here is a link to a further post about this program, including a link to the Archdiocese of St. Paul/Minneapolis brochure about this youth program.  If done properly, this program looks fabulous for our Catholic youth.

Hmmm .... looks like I'm going to have to look into this further .....

Mother-Daughter Tea and Father-Son Barbeque

OK, this is such a wonderful idea from the lovely ladies over at the Pious Sodality of Church Ladies ... a very wonderful group of ladies whom I have never had the pleasure to meet and yet I get many wonderful ideas from them.

Seems that for the past 12 years or so, their Parish sponsors an annual mother-daughter tea party (with a father-son barbeque also).  The girls (9-13) come with their moms, all dressed up and wonderfully feminine-looking, and enjoy not just tea and cakes (see today's post for their menu ... wow!) but also talks from older teens about modesty in dress and behavior, talks about being feminine and the great gifts given us when God created man and woman differently.  Go read both of Margaret Mary's posts about the teas.

This is so cool!  And the fact that they also have a similar party for the guys is just wonderful. 

Anyone want to join me in starting up something similar nearby?