Tea Party Tuesdays

As a newly, once-again, "stay at home mom", I am enjoying every moment I can with my almost 4 year old daughter. The last few years have been so busy for me that I didn't have much time to do the the girly things that I looked forward to when I found out my fourth child would be a girl, so I am making up for lost time.

One of the activities we have started and I hope to continue is our Tea Party Tuesdays. Sometimes this consists of dessert plates with cookies or fruit and other times the plates hold little sandwiches and fresh veggies as our lunch, but it always consists of one-on-one time with my daughter whom will be older and onto greater things before I know it.

In order to make it special, I move her little table and chairs into "mom's living room", the one with my breakables and no tv. I cover it with a white linen tablecloth covered in lace and fancy linen napkins. I even put out part of one of my china settings. We get dressed up, on most days, and always put on lots of jewelry. Sometimes even her stuffed animals join us in the gathering.

After the first tea party, I realized even the fruitiest or weakest of teas was not going to satisfy my little one, so our teapot is usually filled with hot cocoa.

I enjoy watching her eyes sparkle while telling me about something her brothers did or how silly daddy is and look forward to the day when she and I will discuss the happenings in her pre- teen, teenage and young adult life. My plan is to continue our once a week dates and keep our one-on-one communication flowing. What better way to begin this than with our Tea Party Tuesdays.