Celebrating the Feast of St. Therese

"My mission-to make God loved-will begin after my death.

I will spend my heaven doing good on earth.

I will send a shower of roses."

Saturday afternoon, in honor of St. Therese, we had a "Shower of Roses" Tea Party.  It was just the children and I, since my husband was working on a fire engine for the day, and I actually nearly skipped doing anything special (other than letting the kids work on some of the printables I had created) since I had a low grade fever on Friday and still wasn't feeling completely back to normal - thinking we would just wait until today, her traditional feast to celebrate.

However, dear St. Therese must have come to my rescue once again... I started feeling a little better that afternoon, and decided to try and pull together a simple little tea party.  After a quick trip to our local market (to try and find some eclairs, ingredients to make our own eclairs, or maybe some cream puffs) everything just fell into place, and our "Shower of Roses" Tea Party turned out much lovelier than I had imagined!

~ On the Menu ~

St. Therese of Lisieux Tea

Red Rose Naturally Decaffeinated Tea

Cream and Sugar Cubes

Heavenly Rose Garden Tea Sandwiches

Fruit and Veggie Platter

"The Story of a Soul" Cookies

Saintly Symbols Cupcakes :: St. Therese of Lisieux

Rose Petal Scones

French Vanilla Rolled Wafers

Éclairs

St. Therese of Lisieux Tea

 I pulled out my St. Therese Tea from Sancti-Teas, a couple precious statues, and my rose tea pots to get started!  I purchased the tea awhile back, and use it for special occasions only, so I still have plenty.  I also made a decaffeinated Red Rose tea that my children like as well. 

Heavenly Rose Garden Tea Sandwiches

I then started working on some Tea Sandwiches.   I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to make, but wanted to try to come up with a Rose themed sandwich and ended up with these "Heavenly Rose Garden Tea Sandwiches!"  They turned out so pretty and were not only delicious, but healthy as well!   The perfect alternative to all the sweets, especially for this pregnant momma who has been gaining weight a little quicker than I would like! 

I then went on to make some more Rose Tea Sandwiches, using Turkey Roses and Snap Pea Leaves - some with the Garden Vegetable Cream Cheese that I had used for the first tea sandwiches, and some with plain cream cheese for my younger children. 

"The Story of a Soul" Cookies

These "Story of a Soul" cookies were a last minute addition, when I happened to see a package of Rose Colored (Strawberry) Bar Cookies on an end cap at the market.   I put a little icing on the top of each (left over from my Little Flowers Meeting) in addition to a small mini candy rose, after deciding that it would take forever to write on them all with my Easy Writer Food Decorators.   

Saintly Symbol Cupcakes :: St. Therese, the Little Flower

I haven't posted about them all yet, but this is another one of the "Saintly Symbol Cupcakes" that I came up with for Wreath IV of Little Flowers, in honor of St. Therese, decorating the cupcakes with gold sprinkles, mini candy roses, and a chocolate cross.

Rose Petal Scones

I had recently run across this recipe for Rose Petal Drop Scones and considered making them, but honestly didn't feel up to baking, nor was I able to find Rose Water, or edible Roses for that matter.  Instead I purchased a little package of freshly baked Orange Cranberry Scones (the cranberry's at least look somewhat like Rose Petals!) from the bakery, and placed them on one of my daughters Rose Tea Platters.

French Vanilla Rolled Wafers

Since St. Therese was French, these French Vanilla Rolled Wafers from the cupboard were a great addition to our tea. 

Éclairs

Of course, our tea had to include Éclairs, St. Therese's favorite treat, and I was happy to find four at the bakery.  (In the past we have made our own, but our local market doesn't carry the ladyfingers.)  We already had plenty of treats to choose from, so each of my children split them, just one half each, which was plenty. 

While I prepared the tea, the children rounded up some of our books about St. Therese, in addition to a few of our St. Therese dolls to display on the hutch.   Afterwards they each choose a book to read during quite time and throughout the coming week.

I scattered rose shaped and pink tea lights over the table, which was covered with a light pink tablecloth and then our Angels and Roses lace tablecloth, while the boys set out our China and tea spoons.  

Then it was finally time to say another little prayer to St. Therese and enjoy our tea!  

Oh!  I took a picture of my little Teapot Tea Infuser to share with you all!  I purchased this awhile back at a little local tea shop, and rarely use it, since most of the time I opt for tea that comes in tea bags, but isn't it so cute?!?  

Rose absolutely loved that we let her have a china cup for the tea party... 

... and it was so cute watching her pretend to give her doll tea from her spoon. 

Everyone had such a great time, especially our little one, who just couldn't stay awake for the whole party! 

St. Therese, the little flower,
please pick me a rose from the heavenly garden
and send it to me with a message of love; 
ask God to grant me the favor I thee implore 
and tell Him I will love Him each day more and more.

St. Therese, the Little Flower, 

Pray for us!

ParTEA Time :: A Tea Themed Birthday!

Our little Twinkle Toes turned 8 years old yesterday and so it was ParTEA time!  Since our children generally just have one big "friends" birthday party (the rest are just with family), this was the one for Twinkle Toes.   Originally we were going to do it last year, when she turned 7, but since her Daddy was on a fire assignment, and since we were remodeling and didn't have a kitchen at the time, and since I happened to be hobbling around on crutches, we decided to wait until this year.   Of course I over planned as usual, and I wasn't able to get to everything on my list, but I had so much fun planning her special day!

.: Invitations :.

I just love, and have been getting so much use out of my Cricut!   I made these cards using the Tea Pot from the Once Upon a Princess cartridge, along with some dark pink, light pink and white card stock, a white fine tip paint marker and some strawberry stripes yarn - all of which I had around the house.   We also made our own envelopes out of various colors of 12x12 scrapbook paper.

The inside of the card had all the information, and at the bottom it read:

Please dress up in your favorite teatime dress.
Hats and gloves are optional. 

My boys volunteered to be waiters and had so much fun coming up with their own uniforms!  Just wait until you see the pictures of them wearing their mustaches while serving the girls.   This will be a memory of her older brothers that Twinkle Toes will cherish forever! 

.: Decorations :.

To brighten up the room, and disguise the fact that all the chairs didn't match, I used a nice big white tablecloth to cover the table and then hung white king sized pillow cases, crib sheets, and whatever other white fabric I could find laying around the house over the back of each chair.   I then tied big pink tulle bows around the back of each to secure the fabric in place.   It looked so pretty!

Next I created a banner to hang in the window using my Cricut with the George (Font) and Winter Woodland (Shapes)  Cartridges, punching two small holes in the top of each card and stringing them all together with some light pink ribbon.

For centerpieces I picked up a couple dozen pink roses (from Costco) and some Babys Breath (from Safeway) to place in a couple fishbowl style vases on the table.   I bought the Roses over the weekend, so (with a vacation coming up) we'd be able to enjoy them for as long as possible.   They make me smile every time I walk into the dining room!

Oh!! After seeing this idea recently on Pinterest, I had to pick up some pink Duct Tape for our water bottles.  Isn't this the greatest idea?!  Unlike printed water bottle labels from your computer, these bottles of water wrapped with a strip of Duck Brand duct tape can go right in the ice tub looking pretty, without any ink bleeding!
 

.: Decorating Tea Time Cookies :.

I had pre-baked the cookies using a couple different sets of cookies cutters (Fox Run's Tea Party Cookie Cutter Set and Wilton's Tea Party 3 Piece Cookie Cutter Set) along with lots of icing and sprinkles.

.: Guess How Many :.

I also had a little jar filled with Candies for the girls to try and "Guess How Many!"  I made my own little entry sheets with a cute tea pot font.  Any guesses on how many you think are in that jar?   Most of the girls were way off, but my sister Julianna and niece Layla (her smart momma must have helped her) tied for the closest - just 8 off!

.: Tea Time Menu :.

Next it was time for tea!   I made this somewhat simple by picking up the various pastries from Costco, along with a Chicken Salad kit, but I still had plenty of baking to do to prepare for the party! 

On the Menu:

Chinese Chicken Salad

Millionaire Salad

Cream Cheese and Cucumber Tea Sandwiches

Peanut Butter and Strawberry Tea Sandwiches

Grapes 

Strawberries

Lemon Tea Cookies

Petite Cinnamon Rolls

Mini Lemon Biscotti

Marshmallow Teacup Cookies

Red Rose Tea with Cream and Sugar

Sparkling Pink Lemonade 

 

I sure love my boys, mustaches and all! lol!

.: Pinata :.

I ordered this darling Tea Pot Pinata from Amazon, and boy was it hard to crack open... It was great, everyone got at least one turn!

.: Cake Walk :.

I'm not sure what I was thinking, but the girls and I made FOURTEEN 6" heart shaped cakes to use for a Cake Walk, in honor of Twinkle Toes' patron saint - Saint Catherine of Alexandria!  This would have been much easier if I owned more than just 2 heart shaped pans! ;)  We frosted them all white and then decorated them with a variety of pink and white sprinkles from our stash.

I placed numbered squares in a circle on the floor.  Each time, when the music stopped, I drew and called out a number.  Whoever was standing on that numbered, picked it up and brought it to me before choosing the cake they wanted to take home.  

It was such a fun game, and so worth the time it took to bake, frost, and decorate ALL those cakes!

.: Tea Pot Birthday Cake :.

Twinkle Toes absolutely loved her...

 ...Pretty Pink Tea Pot Cake...   

... and that Daddy was home to celebrate with us this year! 

.: Birthday Gifts :.

Opening gifts was quite a process.  What generous friends we have!  I don't know where we are going to put everything!!  :) 

My favorite part was watching our sweet, and very shy, little girl get up to give each of her friends a hug after opening the gift they gave her.   

Chiquita, on the other hand, couldn't control her excitement and went nuts, when her big sister opened the new horse from her cousin Layla and her Aunts Meagan, Julianna, and Mary, along with the new doll from Daddy and Mommy!  

.: Party Favors - Tea Bags and Lollipops :.

For Treat Bags, I used a cute and easy idea from Family Fun, turning white lunch bags into Giant Tea Bags!  Instead of stapling the string to the bag and tag, I punches a couple small holes, tying them together.  Inside each bag the girls found one of the following sticker books:   Tea Time Stickers, Glitter Roses Stickers, or Old-Fashioned Roses Stickers.   They then were able to use their bags for all of the pinata candy!

Using White, Red/Pink and Green Candy Melts and this great little Tea Pot and Tea Cup Sucker Chocolate Mold, I had planned to make each girl a lollipop or two, as one last party favor, but I ran out of time after making just four.  Oh well!  They made a pretty decoration and nice little treat for the boys.

   I hope you all enjoyed seeing the pictures!