You see, he told Ains he wanted one, so she enlisted a lot of help to make it happen.
She sent Gray to go get all of Teddy's friends.
She set Hannah to work making tea cakes.
I was assigned popover duty.She put everyone in their proper places.
She wrote the invitations and handed them out.
"Daddy Come to my Tea Party. 10:30." We took it to work and put it on his truck seat.Then she set the table and we waited until 10:30.
Gray made sure he sat beside his elephant.
At exactly 10:30, Daddy showed up for the tea party.
Have I mentioned how much we have loved moving so much closer to his work?We all got lectures on proper behavior for a tea party and were required to call each other "Ms. Hannah", "Ms. Sarah", "Ms. Grayson", "Ms. Ainser", and "Mr. Daddy".
It went on politely for longer than you would expect before it started to break down. How often can you politely shake your head 'no' when your sisters are politely stuffing things in your face before you just want to start boxing Daddy?
Not that often, that's the truth.And Teddy? He's MIA, so he missed the tea party that he asked for. Poor guy. He's lucky she saved him a brownie.
Now the tea party's cleaned up and Ains is setting up a movie theater complete with a pie store...
and a popcorn store.
For the record, my to-do list has been thrown out for today.And I've been informed that nothing electronic is allowed in the theater except for the movie, so I'll have to post this and shut down. Scooby Dooby Doo, here we come!
Right now, writing everything she wants to can get really frustrating and tiring, so she writes as much as she's inclined to and I transcribe the rest for her -verbatim, which makes for some funny letters.
She signs her name and writes the addresses on the envelope and off it goes. She is loving this.
Now I need to make her a Letter List. Should I make one with pictures of the person beside the name? I'm thinking yes ....
It was so worth it.
The girls were counting on getting something very specific.
And there it is. Hannah, especially, has not been parted from it very much over the last week.
They were much loved.
Did I say much loved?
Matt played dolls with them for hours.
The day ended with satisfaction - and a show. Of course.
Lots of present making.
I tried my hand at tracing another pattern.
And then gave it up because the cutting board was needed for much more important things.
Grandpa comes tonight - the whole family is excited for tomorrow.
Hannah goes for the feel-better things like marshmallow crackles. (Same ingredient name, different basic ingredients - this is made with marshmallow root.)
Gray makes anything and everything that he can. He just loves helping.
Applesauce making was huge a few weeks ago - the girls insisted that I be Ma and I call them Mary and Laura.
Ainsley is big into pie-making these days. On this day, she asked her father for help, so she got to make a chocolate pudding pie - with extra flair, of course. Sprinkles in both the crust ...
and on top.
It was verra crunchy. Yum.
She can wear it in pigtails now. Happy Day!
She loves how it looks.
We got our tree up last week and this is the first year in nine years that we have a store-bought tree. Usually we get one while we're in Wyoming visiting family - it's a tradition, hunting for the perfect tree in the perfect spot (too many trees in one place) and hauling it back down the mountain. Didn't happen this year, so we went to a local greenhouse and got a tree.
So much glitter to be distributed!
Ornaments to be dug out and put on the tree.
All that we as adults did this year was get the boxes out, untangle lights, and help where asked. The girls did all of the decorating.
Gray just wanted to wear the hat and play.
So our tree is so clearly decorated by kids. All of the ornaments in the same spot, all of the lights in one area ...
It's perfect for this season of our lives.
Happy Holidays!
