The Teacup

This week the ladies of our church are hosting a wonderful tea party.  I am in charge of the decorating, so I have been running around like a madwoman trying to decorate. (Don't worry, I actually have a very sweet little vignette in mind, so hopefully I can keep the madwoman part hidden for a bit longer...)

In honor of the tea party, I thought I would share my daughter's little teacup.  When she was about four, we saw this cup at Cracker Barrel and Nature Girl just had to have it.  It is the sweetest little cup, so I happily bought it for her.

Nature Girl loved having her own teacup.  For the tea at our church, she carried her own little cup and saucer in this sweet little box.  

Most of her tea parties took place at home, though.  Her favorite partner-in-crime for tea parties was her dad.  (Oh, how I wish I had been organized enough to take pictures...)

Dad was a great sport and would try and cram himself into her little chair and drink chocolate milk while wearing a ridiculous hat.

When Dad wasn't around, she then moved on to having tea parties with our various animals.  We used to keep goats, and I will never forget the time she decided our goats named Firefighter Harry and Little Lady Princess Crystal, were going to have a tea party with her.  Harry kept jumping up on the table and Little Lady Princess Crystal kept trying to eat her feather boa.  Needless to say, our goats had very bad manners and so Nature Girl moved on.

One day while cleaning her room, I found Nature Girl's pet worm collection in the bottom of her tea cup.  Apparently she forgot them there and let's just say, it wasn't pretty...

One would think she might give up after the goat and the worm fiascos, but no, that girl not only was very creative, but she had a stubborn streak longer than the Mississippi River.

(And still does, oh, how I love that girl...)

One afternoon while I was preparing a tea party for her in the kitchen, I heard a thump.   Like something fell from my kitchen counter.  Very odd I thought, as I was alone in the kitchen.  I did some investigating, and I found her guest for the tea that day crawling under the kitchen cabinets.

That is Sally, a salamander.  Nature Girl dug Sally out from the pond in front of our house and thought Sally would be the perfect tea party guest.  

Sally was a indeed wonderful guest.  So much so that Nature Girl kept her for a while.  That night when Nature Girl was taking a bath, I walked into the bathroom to find only her head and tummy sticking out of the water.  On her tummy was Sally, happily taking a bath with my girl.

Now you know why we call her Nature Girl!