Afternoon tea

This weekend Gabby got to participate in her first REAL tea party! David's mom told us that La Duni at Northpark was hosting a mother/daughter/furry friend tea party sponsored by Build-A-Bear, and it sounded right up Gabby's alley.

Gabby's friend Finley is also a big tea-partier, so Christina and I brought the girls and their friends (Finley brought her Build-A-Bunny and Gabby brought her Build-A-Hello Kitty) down the the mall for some fun.

The car ride down was cute...David put his carseat in my car so Christina and Finley could ride with us, and the girls' reactions to having another child across from them in the car were funny. Gabby kept giggling at the novelty, and Finley just seemed a little perplexed by the whole thing.

When we arrived, the tea party host came to greet us wearing a top hat, cape, and gloves. He was quite fancy! He took us to our table and immediately brought over some frosted cookies with fondant pieces that the girls were able to construct into bears. Then came the tea service and bellinis for the moms, and little cups of hot cocoa for the girls. The girls LOVED the cocoa. Finley finished her cup just seconds after it was poured, and Gabby wasn't far behind her. I lost count of how many cocoa refills they had, but we definitely got our money's worth.

And then came the food...a three tiered platter with savory sandwiches on the bottom, baked goods on the middle, and pastries on the top. Each tier contained a few items especially for the girls, and plenty of things for the moms. The girls had grilled ham and cheese, mini chicken sandwiches, teddy bear strawberry muffins, and apple turnovers. The moms had mini tenderloin sandwiches, cucumber radish sandwiches, chicken salad, brioche, popovers, and scones. And all of us got mini flourless chocolate tortes and cuatro leches cupcakes topped with merengue. YUM. All the goodies were served with a platter of assorted jams, flavored butters, and different sugars for tea.

Bearemy the Bear showed up and made the rounds to meet each child...Finley was petrified by the life-sized bear and was having none of that. Gabby wasn't scared, but preferred keeping her distance. A photographer set up a spot in the courtyard where each kid could get their picture taken with Bearemy, but neither of our girls went for it. They did however LOVE running around outside together, and once they got a taste of it, the tea party was pretty much over and they were ready to play.

After consuming more sugar than either one of them has probably had in their lives, the girls were totally BONKERS. And they totally egged each other on and fed off of one another. One girl would take off running through the mall, and the next thing you know, the other one is taking off after her, with both of us moms chasing after them yelling, "STOP!" One decides to jump down the stairs, and the other one has to do it too. One decides to just go limp and sit down on the asphalt while walking through the parking lot to the car, the other one follows suit. When we finally got them strapped back into their carseats and contained in one place, we were EXHAUSTED! But it was totally worth it...the whole experience was just adorable, and for not even being three years old, the girls got to enjoy a pretty fancy afternoon!


All this was for us!



Finley makes her cookie bear

Gabby takes her cookie decorating very seriously.

Finished product! I didn't even help her very much...she followed the picture they gave us.

Proud little artist!

Mmmmmm, cocoa.

Doesn't chocolate make you want to smile like this??

Finley loves merengue.

Two pretty girls

Me and Cheese Face

Mothers, Daughters, and Furry Friends

Silly pals!

The aftermath