Tea Party for nine.....and a need fulfilled!

What should Daughter and I do with our genuine NEED to plan and cook for special occasions and nothing on the horizon? Well...create an occasion ourselves, of course! Daughter and I share this need, especially since we now live only 2 miles apart, instead of 400. We love doing this together any chance we get.

We have both attended High Tea before but never even thought about trying it ourselves. We decided it was time to create a special Tea Party for some of the ladies in our family.

We spent a week planning a menu; poring over cookbooks and our collections of recipes and looking up things online. I even made several phone calls to Youngest Son, a Chef in Martha's Vineyard, to pick his brain a little.

We finalized the menu,

TEA PARTY FOR NINE

tangerine curd tarts

strawberry yogurt scones

fruit and cheese turnovers

double chocolate mini cakes

cucumber tea sandwiches

chicken salad puffs

broccoli & cheddar mini quiches

fresh fruit salad

lemonade

assorted teas

Daughter did the shopping and planned a lovely table setting, and we got together Friday afternoon to get things prepared for our Saturday Tea Party for Nine.

Grandaughter #2 was the most interested in helping and not only did she work on several of the dishes,

she took on the task of designing and creating our display menu (she is quite the artist!)

I arrived early Saturday morning so we could have everything ready for our guests by 12:30

Daughter got out some of her much-loved-but-little-used serving platters, pitchers, and teapots. She set a beautiful table!

The two little girls got their own special table with their own special teapot filled with "Pearl Tea" (1/2 hot water, 1/2 hot milk, and honey)

Our guests arrived dressed in their finest, ready for a special treat

Our Tea Party was HUGE success with everyone! It was such fun to do something that all ages could enjoy and share together. We will definitely be doing this again for more family members in the future. We're already thinking about what we'll serve when our Seattle family is in town! Granddaughter #2 loved all of this so much, from start to finish, that she is considering having a Tea Party for her 12th Birthday party in May........ YAY! another reason for menu planning and party throwing!

...but May is so far away!....hmmmmmm...I guess we'll just have to come up with another self-made ocassion in the meantime.....