A Very Springy Tea Party...

 

You are cordially invited to a tea party, dear readers...

Not just any tea party, but a Spring tea party for ladies both young and old!

Please don your prettiest and most colourful skirts or dresses and bring a plate of

delicious eats along to share with all who are gathered...

~

As I mentioned some time ago, my sisters and I hosted a delightful Spring tea on the 16th of September.  It was our desire to have both the older and younger girls join us for a wonderfully festive occasion...

If you have been reading my blog for awhile...or if you were a reader of my previous blog, Beautiful Girlhood, you will know that tea parties are cherished events in our home and we thought it would be a special way to celebrate the arrival of this glorious season whilst enjoying tea and fellowship with one another...

We love anything vintage and beautiful, so naturally we incorporated this into our table decor...Nancy and I have quite a lovely collection of teacups and thus we were able to set the table with our beautiful mismatched treasures.
The teapots belong to both my mom and I...  I actually splashed out and bought a new one for the occasion...it is now in my special collection.  {{smiles}}

We did not have to buy much at all, improvising here and there...  We were short on sugar bowls, so we used mini pink teacups instead...a friend even helped us out by lending her teaspoons to us for the occasion, thank goodness as we were hopelessly short on cutlery!  {{smiles}}

The flowers were grown right in our garden and picked and arranged by Nancy...  I found some pretty serviettes in my hope chest which were perfect for the occasion while the tablecloths were made from gorgeous rose fabric that had been given to us.

It is possible to host an event without spending too much...we knew we wanted to invite a lot of girls, not wanting to leave anyone out, so we realised we would have to be careful to plan and be willing to make do with what we had.  It all came together so perfectly on the day, praise the Lord for this!

I also made a pretty butterfly bunting from paper and hung teacups and small vases of flowers with lace and ribbon from the gazebo...it created such a stunning effect!  You can see pictures of this idea in this post.

The morning of the party, I awoke to pouring rain...  We had planned to have our tea party outside on the porch, so this was not a good start!  I hoped and prayed it would clear up, but after breakfast things were not looking good.  I began to feel very despondent and wondered what we could do...our house is fairly large, but certainly not for such a big group of girls.  Also, as I did not intend to have the party indoors, I hadn't spent too much time neatening up the living room.

It was then that my dad sent me a text message, reminding me to trust in the Lord for it was His occasion and He knew how it would turn out...  I went to shower and get dressed for the party and surrendered to the Lord...  

As I began baking the snacks, I noticed a bit more light coming in through the window and that the rain had ceased...

By 10:30am, the weather was bright and glorious!  We could not have wished for a more beautiful day for the tea party and all the girls could wear their dresses without shivering.
At one stage, it began to get hot quite outside!  How great is our God?  He even cares about simple things such as a tea parties...

All ready for a splendid morning of tea and fellowship...

Our delicious strawberry sponge cake and centre piece, lovingly made by my sister, Nancy.  I love the little paper bunting she finished it off with...

Miss R dipped strawberries and figs in chocolate before dusting with crushed nuts.  She then arranged them ever so beautifully on a plate, along with other fruit and chocolate...I was thoroughly impressed by the creative efforts of all the girls!

These chocolate brownies were baked by lovely Miss E and arranged, along with the pink meringues, by her creative younger sister, Miss A.  I love this idea and hope to replicate it next time I need to make a tray of sweet treats for an occasion...

Jasmine...from the garden.  Actually, all the flowers were from our garden and really beautified our table...

Before we enjoyed our tea, we played two delightful games...  One was pass the parcel which I happen to be a particular fan of!  {{smiles}}  

I controlled the music which was Vivaldi's Spring whilst snapping pictures here and there.  Each of the girls had a turn to open a layer of the beautifully wrapped parcel...  

Our parcel was somewhat different to the norm as I wanted to include a special gift for each girl with the loveliest present, a beautifully decorated box for earrings or the like, being in the final layer.

Nancy contributed a few pairs of her gorgeous crocheted earrings as well as beaded bracelets and I made a few lace headbands...I also found a couple small gifts while out shopping which included pretty tissues, a bar of chocolate and flavoured tea... 

Each layer of the parcel was wrapped in different vintage gift wrap I had on hand...

This game was a fabulous way to get started and we all enjoyed it very much!

The next game was poetry in motion and produced some wonderful laughs!  {{smiles}}  

 Each girl was given a sheet of paper and a pen and she had to write a line of poetry before passing it on to the girl on her right.  That girl would then write something to rhyme with the first line before folding over the paper to cover the first line....

The process was repeated until each girl had taken a turn to write a line of poetry on each piece of paper.  The ''poems'' were then read out loud and you can imagine the complete nonsense that was produced!  Oh my, it was a great success!

Miss A unwraps her layer of the package in pass the parcel while Gabrielle looks on...

Miss A excitedly tears at her layer of the wrapping...I wonder what is inside?  {{smiles}}

 

Miss S concentrates on carefully unwrapping the parcel...

While the girls were reading their ''poems'' out loud {and laughing merrily}, I popped the kettle on to boil and began filling numerous teapots with tea and arranging the eats on a separate table...

Once everything was ready, we filled our plates with homemade goodies, poured tea in our pretty teacups and enjoyed a lunch which consisted of mainly sweet treats!  {{smiles}}  I sipped so much tea, I am sure I drank a whole teapot on my own!  There was plenty of chatting to do, you see!

It would seem everyone had a sweet tooth, for I was the only one to make a platter of savoury eats!  {{Smiles}}

Time for the party...delicious eats, plenty of tea and pleasant chatter...ah, what could be more wonderful?  {{smiles}}

 

Friends pose for a picture...Miss S and my sister, Beth...

By the time we had munched our way through the tea party food, it was about 1pm which meant we only had a little while longer to enjoy each other's company.  The girls decided to have a round of charades which was hilarious!  The time went by so swiftly, before I looked again, the mothers had arrived to take their daughters home.

Now, I must share with you that by 2pm all the girls had just about left and we had begun to clear the table and tidy up...  Slowly the sky darkened once again, the mist and rain rolled in and we had to change into warmer clothes.  The Lord held off the storm just long enough for us to enjoy our tea party and my heart sang with praise to His glorious name...  His hand was truly upon this lovely event....what a testimony to His grace.

The lovely young ladies who joined us, looking so sweet and feminine in their Spring outfits...  Eighteen girls ranging in ages from 9-19 made up our tea party...

I will treasure these photographs and the memories we made for many years to come.  

~

I hope that you have been inspired to gather the girls for a special tea party...I can honestly say that you will experience the most blessing.  How true the Word is in saying it is more blessed to give than to receive.  Pray and start planning...surrender your ideas to the Lord and watch Him work...

Be blessed, dear readers...and enjoy these beautiful Spring days! 

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  This post may be shared with...

~ An Ornament of Grace Link Party, Five Star Frou Frou, The Art of Homemaking Mondays, Wise Woman Link-Up, Raising Homemakers Link-Up, Cooking and Crafting with J and J and Modest Monday,