Mother-Daughter-Dolly Tea Tables

Our little Mother-Daughter-Dolly tea party gave me a perfect opportunity to use my great-grandmother's Homer Laughlin china. I always admired this pattern in my mother's china cabinet, so it means so much to me to have it now. I am already thinking about the fact that one day this pattern will be passed on to my children. And although I do not want to use this china so often it gets broken or lost, I want the children to remember some special occasions through the years when it was used.

Fresh roses always seem appropriate for the tea table.

With nine of us at the tea party, it was easier to move the dining room table to the side of the room and set up card tables. This kept us all in the same room but felt less crowded than squeezing everyone around the dining room table. (Martha Stewart Eyelet Lanterns in white and pink.)

The three mommies and Cathy's elder daughter, Grace, sat at the Homer Laughlin table.

Mary Ashley, Emma and Hope sat at the second card table; and my Emma and Lizzy sat at a smaller kids table.

Here are all of our sweet daughters: (left to right) Mary Ashley, Lizzy, Grace, Emma, Emma and Hope.

And here are the mommies and daughters: (clockwise from left) Cathy with Hope and Grace; Stacey with Lizzy and Emma; and me with Mary Ashley and Emma.



Tomorrow I'll give you a closer look at the hangers pictured in today's post. Plus, I will announce the winner of a fresh arrangement. See Monday's post for more details.

Mommy-Daughter-Dolly Tea Menu

For our recent Mother-Daughter-Dolly tea party, I asked friends Stacey and Cathy to contribute to our simple menu. I made scones, almond cream, roseberry hot tea and cake. Stacey brought fresh fruit, and Cathy brought tea sandwiches. It was a tea-party perfect combination that both mommies and daughters enjoyed.

A pretty pink cake stand made a perfect table for the littlest party guests: the girls' 18-inch American Girl and Our Generation dolls.

Along with miniature versions of our cake and invitation, the doll table featured tea party items from the Our Generation Tea Party Accessory Set.

Cathy brought a variety of tea sandwiches, including PB&Js, chicken salad sandwiches and a delicious twist on cucumber sandwiches. Find her recipe below.



Southern Cucumber-Tomato Sandwiches
I think I could eat these teatime treats every day.

White bread

Tomatoes

Cucumbers

8-ounce package cream cheese

1 to 1 1/2 cups mayonnaise

1 package Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix

Mix cream cheese, mayonnaise to taste, and dressing mix. Use a cookie cutter, drinking glass or teacup to cut bread into rounds. Spread dressing mix generously on a round of bread, and top with slices of tomato and cucumber. Top with second bread round. Repeat for remaining tea sandwiches. Reserve remaining dressing in refrigerator to use as a dip or sandwich spread.

I am linking this post to On the Menu Monday at Stone Gable.

There is more fun to come from our Mommy-Daughter-Dolly Tea!

Mommy-Daugher-Dolly Tea Invitations

While the boys were at summer camp a few weeks ago, the girls and I planned a special afternoon tea party with friends.

Friends Stacey and Cathy joined me for a friendship tea awhile back, and we have been talking ever since about needing to plan another tea. All three of us have daughters, so we decided to include them in the fun. Our girls love playing with their American Girl and Our Generation 18-inch dolls, so we welcomed our dolls to the tea table as well.

The girls were delighted to see that the dolls had an invitation of their own. (Why is it that cute is even cuter in miniature?)

Sweet place cards -- with teapots for the mommies and teacups for the daughters -- welcomed all of us girls to the table. I have so many fun party details to share. I will share more of our memorable afternoon in upcoming posts.



If you missed yesterday's post, be sure to check it out. You might win a bouquet of flowers.

From You Flowers Giveaway

Did I hear that you are celebrating a birthday this year?

That a fresh bouquet in your bathroom would make you feel pampered when you slide into the tub at the end of a hectic day?

That you think every day is a little lovelier with fresh pink roses on your table?

Or that a busy corner in your home could use a touch of sunny yellow?

I'm pretty sure I heard that fresh tulips make you smile -- especially when they are delivered on an ordinary day when you least expect them. Did I hear that? I think I did.

I know for certain I heard that From You Flowers would love to send you the Sweetest Honey bouquet, pictured above. Just because. And isn't that the best reason of all?

Please leave a separate comment for each entry you choose, and a winner will be drawn randomly at week's end to receive the Sweetest Honey arrangement.

(1) Visit From You Flowers, and tell me your favorite arrangement.
(2) Give From You Flowers some love on facebook or twitter.
(3) Follow A Little Loveliness.
(4) Like a Little Loveliness on facebook.
(5) Follow A Little Loveliness on NetworkedBlogs.


From You Flowers is offering readers of A Little Loveliness a 15 percent discount. To claim your discount, visit www.fromyouflowers.com/alittleloveliness or enter the code "1LL" at checkout.



I know you love flowers, so let me hear from you!

Easy Indoor S 'mores

Carson and Christian have participated in a record number of summer camps this year. They went to Camp Wetoga together with our church youth group, but the other camps they attended separately. Carson went to Inspire and Leadership Camp at Faulkner University, and Christian went to Backwoods Christian Camp and baseball camp at Faulkner. With so many new experiences to share with the family, I thought the boys would enjoy telling us some of their favorite camp memories over a plate of s'mores. Prepare this easy, indoor treat for a summer party, and you are sure to have happy campers too!

Easy Indoor S'mores

Keep the home fires burning with this quick and easy treat.

Jumbo marshmallows
Melting chocolate
Graham cracker crumbs

Assemble all ingredients before you begin. Line a cookie sheet with heavy-duty aluminum foil, and cover with marshmallows. Pour graham cracker crumbs into a small bowl or ramekin. Heat melting chocolate in the microwave or on the stove top according to package directions. While chocolate is melting, toast the tops of the marshmallows with a butane kitchen torch. Use caution with the torch, and follow package directions carefully. Toast the marshmallows at varying degrees, barely toasting the tops of some and blackening the edges of others. Insert twigs or popsicle sticks into the tops of the toasted marshmallows, and dip them first into the melting chocolate, then into the graham cracker crumbs. Serve the s'mores warm while the chocolate is still melted, or allow the s'mores to cool on wax paper before serving. (Note: I love an excuse to pull out my Williams-Sonoma butane kitchen torch. Amazon offers several options, including the BonJour Creme Brulee Chef's Culinary Torch, the Orka Kitchen Torch and the Blazer Stingray Butane Torch.)

Have a great weekend, and come back Monday for a fresh-picked giveaway!

Graduation Flowers

Along with gift cards for all the high school seniors from our church, we gave the girls a little something extra. 

I have continued collecting Starbuck's Frappuccino bottles since Emma's Bubblegum Blowout earlier this year and thought they would make cute vases for whimsical floral arrangements. Designer Katy Larson created shabby chic bottle labels and gift tags for me in a summery yellow and pink color scheme. 

I wanted these arrangements to have a fresh, youthful feel. Bouquets of carnations in soft pinks and yellows were just what I hoped to find when I did my grocery shopping yesterday.

A gift tag cut with a scalloped circle punch and slipped onto a straw from The Sugar Diva adds the finishing touch.

Congratulations to Abby, Lauren, Rachel and Shelby! We look forward to watching you bloom in this next phase of life.

"I hope your dreams take you to the corners of your smiles, to the highest of your hopes, to the windows of your opportunities, and to the most special places your heart has ever known." -- Author Unknown

Happy Independence Day

"Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed - else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die." -- Dwight D. Eisenhower


I hope you are enjoying a blessed and happy Fourth of July. We are spending most of the day working on our house, but do hope to fire up the grill and take a swim later in the day. And hopefully the day will end with fireworks -- that's always a good thing!


Thank you to everyone who entered last week's summer book giveaway. The winner, drawn at random, was April Allen. Congratulations, April! I encourage the rest of you to pick up a copy of our latest book club selection, Sweetwater Gap by Denise Hunter.

Happy Fourth of July!

VBS Crafts & Favors

We enjoyed a busy week of vacation Bible school at our church this week. I taught the young 3s class and thought you might enjoy a peek at our simple crafts and favors. First up, cute tin buckets from the dollar section at Target embellished with a chalkboard vinyl sticker. Before class I used a scalloped circle punch to punch the stickers from a roll of adhesive chalkboard vinyl. Filled with sidewalk chalk, also from the dollar section at Target, these buckets made a great take-home favor and classtime activity. My 3-year-olds loved drawing on the sidewalk outside the church building, and at 5 and 7, Emma and Mary Ashley have been eager to use the extra buckets of chalk at home. (Wouldn't this be a cute and inexpensive birthday party favor?)

Monday night our lesson centered on the bronze serpent of Numbers 21:9: "So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live." Taking a Bible story about snakes and making it cute is a challenge, but we did our best to keep the lesson preschool friendly. We began class playing with Wonder Dough from Dollar Tree (containers wrapped in scrapbook paper from Hobby Lobby). I showed the children how to roll worms and snakes with the dough, then told them the biblical account of Numbers 21. Next we played with plastic party favor snakes from Dollar Tree and sampled Sour Neon Worms from Hobby Lobby. Then we made our own version of the brass serpent on a pole. 

Last year Emma's preschool teacher had me make worm pencils for a classroom favor, and this seemed a perfect craft for our Bible lesson. The children chose their favorite color pipe cleaners and pom-poms, and we teachers hot glued the pom-poms and googly eyes to make serpents. With assistance, the children twisted their snakes around pencils from the dollar section at Target. (And I bet you never expected to find snakes on A Little Loveliness!)

Our theme for the week was GPS: God's Perfect System. So in keeping with an auto travel theme, I let the children make their own cities using plastic foam sheets and stickers from Hobby Lobby. Each child was given a large green sheet to fill in with roads cut from black sticky-back plastic foam. We teachers helped add yellow lines down the road with thin strips cut from sticky-back foam, and the children embellished their cities with street signs, flowers and lady bugs. Cars from Dollar Tree (not pictured) provided driving fun at the end of class.

The last night we sent our 3-year-olds home with plastic bins from Dollar Tree, personalized by my co-teacher with her Cricut and filled with goodies from Dollar Tree. Our bins were handy for carrying home extra treats, like the wooden cars from Oriental Trading the children painted in their preschool activity room time.



I am already missing my sweet class of 3-year-olds and hope they enjoyed our time together in VBS as much as I did. Don't forget to check out our newest book club selection and register to win a copy in my previous post. Have a safe and happy Fourth of July weekend!