Not a REAL Tea

Today we celebrated Faith's birthday with a "tea" party. We had a total of eight little preschool girls in pretty spring dresses. They were darling, and I just wish I had done better with creating an atmosphere for dainty dining. I had it in my mind-- each girl would have her own place setting complete with a flower and name card and the dining room would be transformed into a tissue paper rose garden... Let's just say it didn't come together- not even close. Forty-five minutes before showtime I was almost in tears because I had about four hours worth of things I still wanted to do. I really missed having Dave to help me. I definitly needed 4, or more, hands. (The party was during the day since all the guests were pre-schoolers.)

My friend Betsy and her two lil' ladies showed up about 25 minutes early. This turned out to be a lifesaver. Betsy was so sweet to pitch in and help me with last minute stuff. She vacuumed the living room, cut tissue paper for a flower craft and even managed to hang a few streamers all while I was making slapping together the pbj sandwiches! I kept stressing and thanking her for her help. I apologized for not ironing the tablecloths. She finally said, "Clair it's not a REAL tea!" That cracked me up! Here I was acting like the Queen of England was coming!

Once again I let myself get too stressed. I thought I had planned well and divided my to do list tasks smartly over the previous few days, but I was not ready for this one. I think several factors made me less than ready for this party (not to be making excuses for myself, but...) First of all I came up with the theme only 1 week before the party so I didn't have the leisure of mulling over ideas and gathering what I needed over a period of time. (Let me insert here, lest SHE think I'm ungrateful, that I wouldn't have even had an idea and a plan if it wasn't for my best friend Janet who consulted with me daily. How I wish I could have transported her here to help me on the big day!)

I hit a snag when I had planned on going to Wal-mart the night before for a few things I had forgotten. I was going to go late the night before after getting the kids in bed but Dave got called into work at about 8:30pm. I asked him to get the stuff after work if he wasn’t too tired- well he finished around midnight and he didn’t get it and said he planned to get up early today to get it. Poor guy! I got up around 4am to feed Seth and decided to just stay up and get to work with so much to do—I mopped and straightened up the piano room. Anyway, Dave got up (late- only in the ARMY) at 5:30am and said he had to go straight to work to set up and then was scrubbing a case right after. Aaagh! To add insult to injury I realized after he left that my makeup was in the car.

Dave felt really bad and he knew (from experience) better than anyone, how I was freaking out on the inside. (I can get really ornery before a big event, but I was nice this time. That probably made it worse, huh?) Anyway, my knight in shining armor came through once again. He ended up driving home from work so I could drive him back to work and keep the van. (BTW- We only have one car.) What a guy! I felt much better after this. Then, I just had to try to make a Wal-mart trip in record time.

And on and on...I'm sure if anyone is still reading this you are bored to tears. I'm just hoping that I learn from this experience and am better prepared for Olivia's birthday which is in two weeks. Two weeks!? Oh no, I think I'm too late already.

And for any worried Mormon's let me assure you that we did not serve real tea at this not real tea party. We served orange sherbet punch, the sherbet being the most essential thing I had to go back to Wal-mart for in the first place.