Poolside Tea

It is only fitting that on my birthday (yes, I know, I gave you no warning), I share pictures of one of my favorite activities....going to tea.  As you saw from this post, my mom and I adore this venue of feminine creativity.  These pictures are from a poolside tea a few weeks ago.  My mom bought tickets at the Brethren Relief Auction, and we couldn't wait to get dolled up for the occasion.  We had a beautiful day.  We had four of the twelve tickets.  Here was our group...

clockwise from top left...Janie, mom, me, and Donna.

The whole group by the gazebo. 

me and mom....yeah, I know I went a little crazy with the pearls, but when other than at tea do adults get to play dress-up?

we started with chilled punch in antique peanut butter glasses.

beautiful place setting

two kinds of scones hot from the oven....of course they served the obligatory devonshire cream and lemon curd.

The savories...

...and the sweets!  mmmm...melt in your mouth good, every one.  Do you remember this cake?  Same bakeshop....SOOOO yummy!

This adorable bed sits outside the playhouse that you can see in the next picture.  It is seriously, one of the cutest things I have ever seen!!!  I have a better picture of the playhouse from a previous tea here.  I'll try to dig it up for you.

and here are a few more pictures of the beautiful setting.

Teacher's Tea

I've had so much fun stuff going on since coming home that I haven't had time to post it all.  Last week, my mom and I had the privilege of doing a tea party for the teachers from my elementary school.  They get together on a regular basis, and they asked my mom to do a tea (something we both enjoy...my mom is amazingly talented).  A few of these ladies started working there after I graduated from good ol' Sporting Hill Elementary, but my 1st, 3rd, and 6th grade teachers were there.  It was a bit windy but otherwise a nice day for an outdoor tea.

                                                                      

                                            

Devonshire cream in edible flowers (I forget what they are called) to go with the scones.
    

There was a chilled strawberry soup in these rose soup bowls.
                 
                                                                    

There were a few other courses, but I missed taking pictures of them.  We served a lemon ice cream pie (which is my favorite dessert on the planet) with these other tasty treats.