A few weeks ago, I was geared up to take my 4 yr. old daughter Aria and 5 yr. old goddaughter Maya to tea. It was going to be their first experience wearing princess dresses and eating dainty finger foods on delicate little plates and teacups.

***The day started out very well, with both girls very excited to be together. But soon after, reality hit me and Aria had a difficult time sitting still. After all, she is only 4 yrs. old. But for the most part both of the girls behaved very well and enjoyed their milk and lemonade. They weren’t too crazy about their food though, so Maya’s mother and I ate theirs along with our own little goodies. Would I take my daughter to tea again? Maybe when she’s older and can appreciate the kinds of food they served.

Recently I had a brilliant idea that I was going to have tea for dinner. This time I was going to provide finger foods that both my kids and husband would enjoy. My son Nicolas never had tea before, and my husband had only experienced it once, and would never step foot into another teahouse again. He is a man with a man-sized appetite and cucumber sandwiches just didn’t cut it for him. So, my hearty menu went as follows: Roasted tomato and pepper soup, pan fried chicken dumplings, cheese and ham puff pastries, cheese pizza, garden salad and curry chicken salad sandwiches. For dessert, we had raspberry and apricot shortbread cookies, chocolate pudding with whipped cream and pastries from a local Asian bakery. We were all stuffed and pretty happy, especially Aria. I forgot to take pictures of the desserts since my family dug right into it before I had time to think about it. Maybe I’ll do it again sometime, and next time it might be everything chocolate if my son had it his own way.