Fairy- Garden Tea Party

"Fairies sweet they will be, dancing under the bower, hung by a tree. Pink and swirling to and fro, Oh where oh where will these pixies go? "Colleen Mullaney

The granddaughters helped host a tea party and decided a Flower Garden theme would be nice.Every garden needs butterflies, and fairies! Here is one of my butterfly teacups. I love this set of teacups, the background color of each teacup is different.The teacups come in a set of six , they are labeled "CLASSIC, coffee & tea. Made In China ". I purchased them from Amazon.com. These are my most-used set of teacups because the grandchildren love them.

Our oldest granddaughter made these cupcakes all by herself. She told me to make sure the gummy worms I bought were NOT sour. After she baked the cupcakes she inserted a gummy worm into each one.

She frosted around the worms using a Ziploc bag with a corner cut out as her frosting dispenser.

She also set a tea table for the dolls. There will be six dolls for tea.

The granddaughters set the table outside under a pop-up shelter, it might rain or be too sunny and great-grandparents shouldn't sit under rain or the hot sun. The fairies danced and swirled over the tables.Notice the varied colors of the teacups. Little boys love the frog- green and pumpkin- orange colors. Cupcakes, ice water with a skewer of blueberries and mint for delicate flavoring. Mint tea in the teapot under the tea-cozy. Barbecue potato chips to go with the sandwiches ~ egg salad, chicken salad, tuna, and the all time favorite, peanut butter & jelly.

Let the tea party begin! All 8 of our grandchildren enjoying a tea party with their great-grandparents and me, this is a true blessing to be savored and remembered.

A butterfly came for tea and fluttered around and on the nearby pink flocks throughout the day.

Each little girl took one of the fairies home and the 2 little boys took home a small teddy bear holding a butterfly. Fairies, cupcakes, teddy bears, flowers and butterflies are special and sweet, but none are sweeter or more special than the children who dream about them , read and tell stories about them, then throw their arms around me and give me big kisses before they skip away to play with each other, my grandchildren, the most amazing little beings at the fairy -garden tea party. Please be sure to check out what is going on around Blog-Land on Tea Time Tuesday by clicking onto the links below.

• Lady Katherine' Tea Parlor*
• Martha's Favorites *
• Wanda Lee *
• Terri at Artful Affirmations *
• Pam at Breath Of Fresh Air *
• Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage *

"Before I Kick The Bucket"

"Before I kick the bucket", my husband's mother said as she was handing out dolls to our granddaughters, her great-granddaughters.

"Before I kick the bucket I want to give away my dolls to my great- granddaughters." She has a lot of great-granddaughters , we are the grandparents of only 6 of her great-granddaughters. She has a lot of dolls too, so each great-granddaughter will be given a special doll chosen just for them. Each doll has a name, and Great-Grandma took time to talk to each little girl about the doll. My husband's mother has collected these dolls over many years and had them on display in a special cabinet in the basement. The dolls are very important to her. There have been a few times over the years we have had scares regarding my mother-in-law's health and on one occasion grown children and grandchildren rushed back to Washington from all parts of the U.S. to visit her in the hospital after being told she was "not going to make it" after a stroke. Well, the doctors were wrong, and often I tell my husband his mother is going to outlive us. It seems she has chosen to give her prized and beloved dolls to her great-granddaughters now, while she can choose just the right little girl for each doll. We know she has given the little girls something precious. The great-granddaughters know this too, because she handed the dolls to each of them after beginning with the words "before I kick the bucket". The day after the granddaughters received their dolls they had a doll tea party, hosted by our daughters' daughters. Click here* to view her blog post about it. "Our days are numbered. One of the primary goals in our lives should be to prepare for our last day. The legacy we leave is not just in our possessions, but in the quality of our lives. What preparations are we making now? The greatest waste in all of our earth , which cannot be recycled or reclaimed is our waste of the time God has given us each day." Billy Graham

Sorrow Becomes Joy

Our son's 4 daughters were able to travel to this side of the mountains for a glorious week with us and their 4 cousins ( our daughter & her husbands' children) who live close-by. As a grandma who loves to share her faith with them how could I resist spending every day with all 8 of our grandchildren? I decided to have a week long Vacation Bible School here, complete with fun crafts and of course leaving time for the 8 cousins to play together. Our Bible lessons centered on Jesus' triumphal entry on a donkey colt into Jerusalem, His last supper, His betrayal, crucifixion, and resurrection. On the day of the Butterfly Tea party ( previous post ) we watched an animated DVD of this Bible story after we had lunch. Above is a picture of one of our sweet granddaughters' reaction to the abuse Jesus suffered just before His crucifixion.

All 8 of the children ( and we adults too) became very quiet at the animated scenes of His crucifixion , some of the children hid their faces...

...but happiness and relief as we remembered He did not stay in the tomb. He's alive !

I taught Sunday School for many years and over those years I noticed the story of Jesus' death began to disappear from the Sunday School curriculum, instead focusing almost exclusively on His resurrection and the delights of spring time . The crucifixion was greatly minimized and sanitized so as to hold little or no importance at all. One curriculum went so far as to explain that we should not disturb the children with such sadness. I ask you, what then is the purpose or point of our faith ? Where is the hope,miracle, and joy of resurrection if there is no death? (Please know I am not speaking of graphic pictures and descriptions for little children, but a knowledge of the Bible story as it reads). ~"Fifty years ago, when some underground Christians in the church in Germany were asking many of the same questions about the cross, a man who would become a martyr asked, "How could something become cheap which cost God everything ?" Dietrich Bonhoeffer gave his life to remind us that the cross of Christ will forever remain the center of our faith. From the greatest of negatives flow all the positives of our new life in Christ : from conflict, peace ; from pain, healing ;from death, life." ~Michael Card- A Violent Grace "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day; and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations," Luke 24:46,47 "