Tea-ny tiny

In our world of cell phones and text messaging, on Saturday I was touched to watch my niece Rebecca pick up the home phone, squint up at a list of phone numbers on the wall to find the number of her neighbor friends, then dial and invite them to our tea party at 12:30.

Oh, it was so fun. Everyone put on their dresses, brushed their hair, and arrived promptly for tea, which turned into a bit of a luncheon. My niece (on the right) nailed the part of dainty tea drinker. Doesn't she look like a 1930s deb?

Okay, so I kind of forgot how tiny this tea set was. But who cares when it means you can have 4 refills of our special tea? We had tea sandwiches, fruit salad, brownies AND cupcakes, which we made with homemade buttercream frosting earlier that morning together, in four different colors, per Rachel's request.

I taught them how to hold out their pinkies, and even without my suggesting they use their finest manners, they politely asked each other to pass various items around the table. I humored them by offering, "More tea, mademoiselle?"

So sweet.

And you remember how I mentioned the spilling stuff on the tablecloth thing in my last post? While I wasn't looking, these sweet children spilled sugar all over the tablecloth. They didn't even try to hide it. "We had a little accident," one of them said as I stood in the kitchen, preparing the fruit salad. William was suddenly at my side, asking for a napkin to clean it up. So civilized, these children!

And what a good sport, that William. But when your aunt is letting you drink pure sugar to wash down the brownies, cupcakes and peanut butter and jelly, you'd probably put up with a bunch of girls, too.