Tea Party Exclusive!

I realized this morning that I never regaled you all with tales of the Tea Party that I put together and hosted. Getting prepared for it was a little tough, what with hubby being out until Friday morning and my youngest being under the weather. I knew that on Monday I needed to start baking and preparing food for Friday afternoon. I may be the Queen of Procrastination in most areas, but when it comes to planning and executing events, I am ON TOP of things!
Monday, however, my plans were slightly skewed by the fact that the MIL was still here until that evening. I had envisioned in my mind, (silly me...) that she would want to hang out with the boys, pack her things, have a nice leisurely lunch and then in the late-afternoon, head out to the airport. Not so! I had explained in great detail what my week would entail. All the cooking, the preparations, the assembling of items. I had listed what I had planned on baking each day. That however did not make the slightest bit of difference. Instead we "toured" our fair city one last time. I am not joking you. This was not her first time, or even her second time here. We had been out and about ALL weekend long, since Friday. So Monday, while I was trying to work on a recipe for cheese savories, I could tell she was JUST itching to get moving. Now my theory on this is that because MIL is retired, and she used to spend her time teaching Content Mastery to the labeled "problem" children, she now has A LOT more energy. She is not teaching, or trying to deal with temper tantrums, she is traveling, and gardening, and dragging me all over town!
So after several shops, Target, WalMart, and 2 malls, I finally got her to the airport and the boys and I headed home. I spent much of the evening working on more food. The rest of the week was much the same. MOPS on Tuesday, which made it more difficult to get stuff done. But I managed thanks to Gods help, and a friend of mine coming over on Thursday to help me out. I had to scrap the Melting Moments because, 1. they just didn't taste right, and 2. They literally disinegrated in my hand when I would pick them up. I couldn't imagine what would happen if I tried to fill them with chocolate filling and smoosh them together! So I substituted in Chocolate and Vanilla Gooey Butter Cookies! YUM!
Now in light of my new Crazy Pregnant Brain, I forgot my camera! I will have to get some of the pics from the family. But everything looked GREAT! I used different tea cups and saucers for each of the girls, but had matching dessert plates and matching flatware. Then lots of silver trays with doileys and a tiered dessert tray with goodies on it! For favors I had found little tiny tea cup and saucers that I put little bottles of nailpolish and lipgloss in. And then American Girl Trading Cards! I also had sugar cubes with little blue flowers on them. Too SWEET!
The food was a hit, I was so happy with the reactions from everyone! The girls were cute, very polite and all dressed up in their best American Girl finery! I did a lesson on proper tea ettiquette. How to properly serve eachother tea and little cakes.
I am glad it is done, and I honestly couldn't have picked a better family to do it for. I am going to break down the cost of everything it took to bake everything, calculate the time I spent on it altogether, estimate rental costs for all my Tea items, and come up with a good package price for my website and business! I would love for this to be something I did regularly! I had a lot of fun!

Postive Contradiction?

My 3 yr old is one of the most polite kids I know. And I don't just say that because he is mine. He thanks you for everything, kisses, hugs, his juice, food... you name it he is thankful for it. When he was sick, I think he went into thankful overdrive. So sweet, he would throw up, and then thank you for cleaning him up, or changing out the towel he was sitting on!
He has also never said Yeah. Always yes. But heres what makes me have to cover my mouth and laugh to myself. I asked him yesterday if he wanted a cookie. And he looked me straight in the face and said, "Yes, Mommy, I DON'T." I'm sorry, What???
Not, No thanks, or No, Mommy. But Yes, I don't want a cookie. I can ask him if he is ready to go, and I get Yes Mommy, I'm not!
When he starts Preschool in the Fall, I will know immediately if his teacher is TRULY paying attention to him! It would be so easy to just stop listening after hearing the word Yes. I know he is contradicting himself, and in the name of all that is grammatically holy, I should correct him, but it is just TOO DARN FUNNY!!

WFMW

When my kids get sick, they are not huge fans of the Pedialite. They hate the way it tastes, and who can blame them? Its like drinking watered down cough syrup! I don't really like to give them Gatorade because it has a lot of sugar in it. So we give them something called Recharge! You can only find it at places like Whole Foods, Wild Oats, or Native Sun. But it tastes pretty good, comes in three flavors, grape, orange, and fruit punch. The boys seem to like it and it tends to stay down longer. When we had the Rotovirus last year, I gave them this and it really seemed to help the "getting over it" process! It can be a pain to find a store who carries it, but if it keeps them hydrated and get better sooner, its worth it, and, well, that works for me!!

Update On The Sickies

I think the whole Flu bug hit last Wednesday, my little guy was hit pretty hard, this stuff is NASTY!! Then Friday, after I got home from my Tea Party, which was a HUGE success, my 3 yr old promptly threw up in my lap. He has been sick since, and while he has ceased the vomiting, he is still a limp noodle! So tired, asking to go to bed early, and eating next to nothing. Yesterday, my DH was next, no throwing up, just drained and tired. It sucks the life right out of you. I started feeling listless around noon yesterday, went in to check on hubby and laid down with him for a minute. I promptly fell asleep. And I have such a great guy, he got up and went out to take care of the boys. Which was so wonderful. I woke up achy and nauseous and had no energy. I am still pretty much there today, but DH had to go into work. God is giving me the strength to get through the day until he comes home. I will probably not be posting a MP this week since we will be recovering and only eating what we can all handle! Hope everyone has a great week! Thanks for all your prayers, it really helped, I am sure!

Quick Prayer Request

Hey Everyone, I wanted to ask for some prayer for my littlest guy. He has been sick and miserable all day long. Seems like a little tummy bug, but I can't get him to keep any thing down, even Tylenol. He won't get in a cool bath either. He has a temp, and I would like to get it down, but I feel like I am out of options. Just sleepy and listless. He has had a little tiny bit of juice mixed with water about 15 minutes ago, and is resting again. Please pray he can get past this and start feeling better!
Thanks Guys!

WOO HOO! Its WFMW!

Its time for another WFMW, and a day when I should be doing all kinds of things instead of sitting here and reading everyones entries on what works for them! What works for me is nothing new, but I thought I would share it with all of you! When I was in labor with my first son, I was in a birthing center surrounded by 5 midwives. For whatever reason, the only thing that made my labor bearable, besides the lovely warm water, was a hard, pokey massage ball type thing that my hubby was using to massage my lower back. He was pushing really hard, so hard that he had imprints in his hand and had to keep stopping because his hand would hurt. One of my midwives brought in two small tubes, both held Arnica. One was a gel, the other an oral little tablet. She had my hubby rub it on my lower back and I later took a tablet or two. I NEVER bruised. Ever. It was not even sore the next day! I should have had a GI-NORMOUS bruise on my lower back. But the Arnica prevented it! So now when my boys fall and get bonks or bumps in various places, we rub a little Arnica on the boo boo and either the bruising is very minimal or non-existent! And that DEFINTELY works for me!!
You can pick this up at any health food store, btw!!

MPM late again....

I just can't seem to get caught up lately, I think being sick slowed me down, and then last week was spent trying to get better, and clean furiously for the MIL visit that was this past weekend. That went surprisingly well, my hubby got to come in to port for two days of it, which was WONDERFUL! And I feel like MIL actually spent some time getting to know me (its been almost 6 years now, I guess it was time...) and maybe liking me better. I really called it on last weeks MP, we ate out for every meal this weekend and yesterday except for breakfast! But hey, I didn't have to cook, and MIL treated, so I am NOT complaining! This week will be easy-peasy as Charlie and Lola say, since I am in the kitchen all day long preparing for the Tea Party I am planning Friday.
Monday: dinner at Panera
Tuesday: Boys wanted cereal and raisins, so I had cereal too!
Wednesday: Pizza Pancakes, never got a chance to make these a couple of weeks back
Thursday: Grilled Cheese and Tomato soup (this is becoming a staple around here!)
Friday:Crockpot Saucy Meatballs, and Spaghetti (hubby home with boys)
Saturday:Probably out for dinner

Just in case anyone is interested, here is my menu plan for the Tea Party on Friday

Chicken Salad Croissants
PB&J Sandwiches cut with teapot shaped cookie cutter
Blueberry Tea Bread with a lemon cream cheese spread

Fruit Tray with Dip

Sweets:
Melting Moments
Spice Cookies
Brandy Snaps
Orange Cheesecake Dreams
Caramel Apple Bars

Savories:
Mexican Cheese Savories
Cheese Cookies

and a French Vanilla Cake in the shape of a Tea Pot with Fresh Strawberries in the middle! Of course I am serving a variety of fruity teas and a cinnamon one. I plan on taking a TON of pics to post here, as well as on my website. Stay tuned!