Tea for three

I believe part of my calling as a mother is to help create memorable experiences for my children....so I put together an elegant tea party for Sarah to share with some friends. 

(Mommy disclaimer: Of course I neglected my housecleaning this afternoon.....there's a reason why there's a handy thing called the 'crop function' with pictures. You can't see the dirty dishes waiting for their turn to monopolize my attention.)

(Another tangent: No, we don't drink 'real' tea. I served non-caffienated herbal teas and lemonade....just in case you're wondering. We are Mormon, you know.) 

The girls dressed up their dolls in their finest clothing and carefully arranged miniature chairs around the tea table. The dolls shared secrets throughout the party (don't they look like they're whispering something sneaky?)

I happened to have excess chocolate fondue left over from a church activity I had arranged earlier in the week (Oh it was so fun! I get to minister to the single members in our ward. I love socializing with older women!).

The girls were delighted to have an array of dippables for the chocolate. (who doesn't love chocolate-covered cookies, cake, fruit, well....I suppose chocolate-covered ANYTHING is pretty good! I've even seen chocolate-covered bacon in the candy stores.)

They had a lovely time chatting and giggling. For my part, my heart was full just to watch Sarah have such a fun time. I feel so blessed when we get to have happy days like this, just enjoying each other's company. 

When we moved into the country, our lifestyle changed in some unexpected ways. Everything is so far away now that we have the necessity of creating our own entertainment (rather than visiting the library or park or shopping, etc). I had expected this a bit, but I am constantly surprised at how much richer our lives are when we cut out the city attractions. (Okay, the one exception is the library...that one is hard to live without! So we make bi-weekly trips into town to pick up a basket of books.)

Life is beautiful. It just is.