Montana Time - Elena 4th Bday Tea Party/Malea is 1! - Day Three

After a wonderful hot breakfast from Becca, we are off and running.  The day is drizzly and overcast, not at all promising for an outdoor "Garden Tea Party".  We arrive at Rhiana's to find balloons being filled with helium and birthday cakes needing to be finished, decorating still needing to happen, and a decision whether to wait for the rain to stop or just go with an indoor tea party.  A short while later:   indoor it is.  I set to work on the cake while Rhiana and Amanda and Mister get the decorating underway with Mister pitching in and being the "documentor".

Once everything is in place it looks just like a ladies tea - oh so pretty and feminine.  Just like Miss Elena.  We even have little flower pots to be done as an activity.  Ryan and Elena (and Raef) spend a great deal of time coloring and keeping themselves out of the way.  That is a great help all by itself - don't you agree?

A few minutes before the party starts, Mister and I want to give Caleb his "late birthday" gifts and allow him to have something to focus on while people are arriving.  I hide the Geo Trax Cars behind my back but he sees what I am doing and races around behind me to take them.  So much for a build up.  It works nicely though and he is ready to play with a little help from Raef.

Within moments the house is full of little girls in pretty dresses all ready for their "tea party" and having deep discussions with one another.  I am not sure just what details are being worked out here, but they sure seem serious.

While the little ladies are making their arrangements, the boys have momentarily fled the scene and with a little help from Matt, they are having a great time on the trampoline.  When they return to the house, I am not sure who is more tired -- the ones who jumped or the one who laid on his back.  All are certainly breathing heavy and sweating.  Of course -- it is time for the party and the sun is back.  It is a beautiful day.  Perfect for a "garden tea party."  Argh.

Oh wait - perhaps the heavy breathing from Matt is because he is sitting with Becca?  Not sure, but they look like they are enjoying each other.


As everyone starts gathering around the table, I have a few fun moments with Miss Malea.  It is our shared birthday today and so a balloon is definitely in order.  I still cannot believe how lucky I am to share this day with one of my beautiful grands.


It is tea party time!!  The hats go on!  After all what is a tea party without hats?

All the little ladies and a few young gentlemen take seats at the table and enjoy their finger sandwiches of peanut butter and jelly, fresh strawberries, and cupcakes.  Their sparkling grape juice is served from a beautiful pink ceramic teapot much to their delight.  It is perfect.

Not all of the boys wish to participate at the table and so we are feeding them in the kitchen as well.  This gives me good time to talk with them as my time has certainly been taken with preparations for the party.  It is nice to find out what is going on with them as well.  Raef is such a delight to visit with and I am looking forward to more time with him and his brothers in a couple of weeks.

Once the tummies are full, it is time for the creative juices to start flowing.  They settle down to the little table to make headbands - an idea given to us by Britanie, Elena's nanny.

It is finally time for presents and we get to watch Elena as she opens her tea set from us.  What a treat as she immediately takes it so serious.  I cannot wait for a pic of her and Mommy using it one afternoon.  (Check out the headbands on the girls -- too cute.)

After a VERY short break to let kids play, it is Malea's turn and although she is tired, she rises to the occasion.  Big sister helps blow out the candles and it doesn't take long for the smiles to show up as she is giver her cake.


There is not any fist-filling though -- Miss Malea is very neat and enjoys using her spoon.

Elena is once again a big help opening Malea's gifts and she is content to sit and watch the activity from the center of the table.

Grandpa had found a great snack container for Malea to go along with her gift and it is a big hit, both with Malea AND with Britanie.  Simple things.

Mommy's gift to Malea is a trike stroller and she has absolutely no qualms about getting on and going for a ride.  Waaaayyyy too cute.

Daddy's gift to Elena is a covered sandbox and it doesn't take long for Elena, pretty dress and all, to find time to herself to play there. The male cousins have been in it most of the afternoon -- I think it was the only part of this "girls" day that they were totally comfortable with.  Poor things.

My wonderful children pull me aside and give me a beautiful birthday gift of Zebra Wood Hair Sticks.  I absolutely love them and the thought that went into the gift.  I am ALWAYS looking for unique hair items to keep things under control in Dallas as I get a little frizzy down here when it is humid.

After helping clean up, we are soon on our way back to Matt and Becca's to start on the preparations for tomorrows party.  We sit down for a few minutes and Becca comes out with a cheesecake covered in candles and I get my own little "Happy Birthday" song.  What fun and oh so thoughtful.  Thankfully she didn't try and put all 55 candles on the cake, but even still it takes Hyrum and I awhile to get them all off.

Time to get to work.  Becca and I get the table decorations finished as Mister starts in with the wall and ceiling ones.  We have a lot of balloons to fill with air and use for decorating.  Matt gets out the air compressor and away we go.  It doesn't take very long and we are soon rewarded with a very long string of balloons.

At last, it is time for little ones to go to bed and big people to relax a wee bit.  Amanda and Rhiana came over and we spent the evening playing games and laughing oh so very hard.  I have videos from the night but have been forbidden to post them.  All in all --- a GREAT day with family and many new memories to treasure.