There are two very special little girls in my life. They’re my cousin’s daughters, and they live just down the street from my parents in Ohio. Angelina, my goddaughter, is 11. She’s thoughtful and quiet, with a razor-sharp wit. Alanna is almost 9. She is has boundless energy, makes friends quickly, and loves to make people laugh.
Thanks to modern technology, we text and Facetime while I’m in Japan. And when I’m home, I like to do something special with them. I had them over for a tea party for tweens in July, and pulled out all the stops.
I was inspired by some amazing balloons that I found on Pinterest, so I had to replicate them. I bought some Martha Stewart giant balloons from JCPenny and created fringe from tissue paper and metallic ribbon. I used mod podge to apply glitter to wooden “A’s” to weigh the balloons down.
Angelina is usually a pretty picky eater, but she loved the ham & jam tea sandwiches that I made. I thought that she might not like the unusual combination, but she even asked if there were more sandwiches a few hours after we finished lunch! Alanna’s favorite were the cucumber & cream cheese sandwiches. My mom and I fought over the egg salad.
The spread and the girls’ goodie bags.
We used iced tea since it was about 90 degrees out. Not exactly hot tea weather.
Edible flowers frozen into ice cubes
I hate how sugar never really dissolves into iced tea, so I made simple sugar.
The table set with some of my mom’s antique tea cups and beautiful flowers from my parents’ garden
For dessert, we had pound cake with macerated strawberries and vanilla bean whipped cream.
I brought these bright pink flower candies with me from Japan.
Did you notice that pink was a common thread? These are girlie girls, and they are really into anything pink and sparkly.
We had a terrific time, and ended the day with me painting the girls’ nails. Angelina opted for coral with white polka dots. Alanna went with red polish and a sparkly top coat.
