This afternoon I spent over two hours having afternoon tea with my two youngest sons, no dolls invited. [img]wink.gif[/img] We had SO much fun! We finally thawed and ate the cookies I made for a doll photo shoot last spring. The boys weren't interested in the cookies. But they were extremely interested in all the fake AG food. 12 yo son's favorite was Kaya's Salmon with Tea. Also Kirsten's Sausage "pretend dipped in tea" was scrumptious.

The boys enjoyed pouring many cups of tea from Molly's tea pot. However, if the pot is filled full, the first two cups tend to shoot out over the top of a tea cup when poured. Which kept the boys in hysterics. So we tried to remember to only fill Molly's tea pot half full.

I made myself a cup of coffee and carefully spooned it into one of Felicity's yellow cups from her Chocolate Set. That was probably the best 30 cups of coffee I've ever drank!

There were 20 AG serving platters/plates/bowls of AG treats on our tea table. Samantha's top tier wedding cake stand had Josefina's melons carefully balanced along with a towering structure of Kirsten's strawberries. No one touched Samantha's petite fours but Kaya's "flaky pastry cream horns" (finger cakes) got eaten numerous times.

The boys had delicious Constant Comment tea in Molly's tea pot. So they decided to make constant comments when they drank the tea about how tasty it was. And the more sugar, the better. [img]wink.gif[/img]

Molly's party blow-outs were a hit. 10 yo son was really disappointed that Molly's party poppers were fake.

We found out that Samantha's Petite Four candles fit perfectly in Molly's Cake and look even better than the candles that come with her cake. Alas, we only have four of Samantha's Petite Four candles though and I'm not likely to buy another treat set just for the candles. Molly's candles might look more realistic if I painted over the brown flames with yellow and orange acrylic paint.

A snippet of conversation at the table:
12 yo: "Ok, we should talk about something more serious here since this is tea time."
10 yo: "How about politics?"
12 yo: "Yeah, that's great!"
Silence as they pondered the topic.
10 yo "Well, I don't know anything at all about politics." "Me neither," said 12 yo. Then they both laughed uproarously.
...
12 yo: "We should use our best manners" - said seriously while stacking as many mini AG vegetables on a saucer until they tumbled over.

If you all have kids, I want to encourage you to take time for tea. It is an effort to put together and takes time from the day. But the memories you give your kids (and yourself) will be some of your most precious of all.

Julia