In Wonderland

My granddaughter, Esther turned 6 yesterday. Ruth and Tom put on an amazing Alice In Wonderland Party.

Ruth made a topsy turvy cake that was what 4 or 5 “hats” high stacked crookedly and topped with a teacup with cake inside it. (An amazing cake that would cost hundreds of dollars from a bakery) We had a “tea party” with lots of tea cups of all shapes, colors and sizes - Ruth and Esther had done major shopping at thrift stores! - strawberry lemonade for tea. Heart shaped cookies that said “Eat Me” or “Take One” - (Miriam spent 2 evenings putting the writing on.) Heart shaped peanut butter sandwiches. Other snacks, too.

On the fence was a big background paper with 3 trees / bushes painted on and lots of white fabric roses. We put kitchen trash bag smocks on all the kids and they “painted the roses red” - with the appropriate sound track going on during the whole party, naturally. When the trumpets sounded their fanfare, Ruth came out as the Queen of Hearts demanding to know who had painted her roses red and ordering “off with their heads!”

The children played croquet. No flamingo clubs, although Ruth tried to find some. A few small decorative flamingos on the croquet grounds, tho. They were hitting wooden balls, too, but there was a hedgehog ball that got batted around a bit.

The party was quite a hit - probably especially with the grown-ups who appreciated the theme and the work, but the kids had a great time.

If we had left when the party was officially over, we could have gone to the Ward BBQ and Swim Party at a park I don’t know. Not the one from last year. I think one with LESS parking. They said “park in the neighborhood, the neighbors are used to it.” I hear there were 3 pools and of course, in Sacrament Meeting today, they reported that everyone had a wonderful time.

We, however, stayed at Hinds. I visited a good bit with John and Heidi (you remember? Tom’s sister). The kids climbed on and otherwise abused the uncles. Katarina (Catarina?) (younger than Esther, I don’t know about Jared. A spunky, lively little thing. When her friends come over to play Princess, she is the Evil Queen and scares them) took a fancy to Benjamin - calling him her “Lovely Man”. He kept hiding from her. I mentioned that he could say we needed to get home to take care of Tuffy, but... he was .......too polite?

Someone (Ruth and her sisters? I was too busy visiting to notice - shame on me) made some pasta and broccoli. By then it was starting to darken, so Tom and John stretched Christmas lights across the strings of teacups, paper lanterns, etc that decorated the Tea Party Garden. It was quite nice. And getting late, so as soon as we finished eating. we went home. (I had helped clean up the Tea Party table and a bit else earlier. I wasn't a total parasite)