In spite of the drama of her actual Birth Day, B. was very excited for her "friend party" the next afternoon. She got to invite eight other little girls to come enjoy a tea party in the finest traditions of the Grandma's Tea Party my mother started holding when my sisters would be in town with their families during the summer. My mother would send out lovely invitations with her best calligraphy on the envelope and my sisters and I and our daughters would come dressed up in our Sunday clothes to have a nice tea party at my mom's house, complete with tablecloths, little tea sets all set up on the table, crustless sandwiches, little cookies, and apple juice for the tea pots. We always have a wonderful time and take lots of pictures. Once we have all eaten, then it's fun craft time. One year my mom had gotten a pair of flip flops for each granddaughter and strips of brightly colored cloth to tie on the plastic straps. Another year they got to paint little wooden heart boxes and then glue on shells or sequins or whatever. This was what B. wanted for her friend party.
I borrowed my mom's tea sets and got the table all lovely. No one had called to rsvp "regrets" so I was expecting all of the little girls. B. decided that she would like to make little bead bracelets and necklaces and paint fingernails. Painting fingernails has become quite the popular tradition at the Grandma Tea Party because one of my sisters has a great collection of nail polish colors that she generously shares. She also has those cool little decals to put on nails. So I found some, along with a couple of wild fun colors to add to what I have at home. My mom came down to help me with the party. I was so glad, because with the wild and crazy week I had had, by the time it was supposed to be B's party, my brain had melted and I couldn't think very organized. As the girls were arriving we decided to paint fingernails so they would be so glamorous for the eating part. My mom and I did the painting and the decal sticking. I didn't notice any nail polish smears on my tablecloth later, so that was good.
By the time we got to the food, we realized there were three girls who weren't going to come. One we could account for because there was another little girl in B.'s class who was having her birthday party at the same time. The other two, well, who knew? The girls enjoyed the food: crustless turkey sandwiches, some little crackers, and Belgian cream puffs that I grabbed from Sam's Club. Those proved quite popular! We opened presents and made bracelets, and I think that was the girls' favorite part. Each girl got to make a couple of stretchy elastic bracelets.
I kept it to about an hour, which was short enough that the girls were still having fun, but long enough that they enjoyed themselves. No more two-hour birthday parties for me! (I learned that with L's kindergartener birthday party last winter. What a zoo!).
After everyone went home we had a birthday dinner using my grandma's real china to celebrate both B.'s birthday and O.'s, whose birthday was a week later. Both my parents were there to join us, and that was fun. I had popped a roast and potatoes in the oven earlier in the day, so dinner prep was minimal. Store-bought rolls were handy, and we had brownies and sundaes for dessert. Yum!
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