One of my greatest shortfalls as a parent is selfishness. I long for the minute that the kids go to bed every day; nap and for the night. I just want a few minutes to myself, to have thoughts of my own, and to sip either tea, coffee, or wine without someone pulling on my arm, spilling my precious liquid and ruining my solidarity.
This selfishness really blocks me from spending some amazing quality time with my kids. Since we started a schedule and routine a couple of months ago, I have been focusing a lot on spending more time doing fun things with them, and focusing away from myself.
We’ve had a great time building memories at new parks, taking our baby dolls on walks, and simply playing with toys at home. It’s amazing how much happier they are in general, and how much less stressed out I am on a daily basis.
Since we started spending more time together, The Muffin has been begging me for tea parties. Her tea parties often include pulling every, single stuffed toy out of our toy bins, lining them up on the stairs, then forcing me to sit and watch a movie with her. There is no tea actually involved. There’s actually no drinking of anything involved.
Where she got this “tea party” idea is beyond me. Apparently the girl watches FOX news when I’m not around.
I drink a lot of coffee, and while I love tea, and have a tea chest devoted to the proper care and handling of tea bags, I don’t drink it as often as I’d like. I really should replace my afternoon cup of coffee with a cup of decaf tea, but I just don’t think about it sometimes. I checked my tea chest, where I keep my Bigelow tea , and noticed that I was DANGEROUSLY low on tea. As in I had 2 tea bags. Sinful.
So in my flu-induced coma, I drug myself off of the sofa to go pick a few things up from Walmart. If you want to see what shopping with the flu looks like, please check out my shopping with the flu at Walmart photo album.
It was a delightful shopping trip. If you compare it against wrestling starved tigers or swimming with anacondas. I had a fever, the kids were all sick too, and my body hurt so bad that lifting my hand to my face to blow my nose took more effort than running a marathon. You might roll your eyes when you see my measly 99* temperature, but my normal temperature is consistently 97.2. ALWAYS. So a 99.9* temperature for me is like the “average” person having a 101.3* fever. Whatever – it sucks. Having a fever never feels good.
Bigelow’s “I Love Lemon” tea is fantastic when steeped with 1T of Apple Cider Vinegar and some honey. Apple Cider Vinegar & honey tea was my Mamom’s old remedy for cold and flu, and it really does make you feel better. It’s just like being home. Plus, Bigelow has an ENORMOUS selection of gluten-free teas. You have to be careful with everything you put in your mouth once you adopt a gluten free lifestyle. It really is amazing how gluten is just in EVERYTHING. Everything except Bigelow tea, anyways.
So anyways, while we were at Walmart, I wanted to also pick up some Bigelow tea that The Muffin would like so that we could start having genuine tea parties as opposed to stuffed-toy standoffs on the staircase.
I picked out an assorted pack so that we could pick and choose which teas we wanted to drink. There are some teas I don’t much care for, and I figured that The Muffin would run across the same thing with her picky palate.
We came home, I fed the kids, put them to bed, and had a little moment to myself. with a box of Bigelow’s Sweet Dreams tea .
Luckily for everyone in the Dirty Floor Family, I felt about 59% better the next day, so I decided to let The Muffin forgo her nap in lieu of a real tea party. I wanted to dress up in fancy dresses and big hats and relive my 30th birthday party with my dear daughter.
She had other plans.
Her plans involved Princess dresses and fairy wings.
We picked out our tea flavors and made tea together, then set up shop on the rug that my Mamom made in our living room.
The Muffin wanted peanut butter instead of King Cake Cupcakes and I wanted some pomelo.
She thought the orange spice tea was a little strong, but she loved my “I Love Lemon” tea. Next time, I’m giving her Vanilla Chai and telling her it’s hot chocolate.
We had a wonderful tea party with Lily the frog, a ladybug, and an alligator.
I laughed and laughed, we made toasts over our tea, and we talked about girlie things.
I haven’t had such fun in a really long time, and I’m getting all weepy thinking about it.
Next time you want to feel closer to your daughter, consider grabbing some Bigelow tea and making a date of it. You won’t regret doing it, you’ll only regret not doing it.
I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias ® and Bigelow Tea #CBias #SocialFabric #AmericasTea. As always, all precious princesses, and fantastic ideas are my very own and were not influenced in any way.
Audra says
I love bigalow teas. I would love to take a kettle of it right now and pour it over my neighbor in the hotel who set his alarm an hour and a half before my alarm and proceeded to hit the snooze button for the next two hours and still going.
Mallery Schuplin says
Can I get an invite to your next tea party? Michael is into pretend parties and I will let you dress him up as a princess if you don’t tell his dad. 🙂
Summer says
YES! Grady likes to walk around with high heels on, pushing his baby in his stroller. They can play together while us princesses sip our gold leaf tea. I can’t wait! 🙂
Brandie (@ Home Cooking Memories) says
I loved your video! She is absolutely adorable. Makes me wish I could go back in time and have a tea party with my daughter. So good that you did do one and created those memories with her.
Summer says
There will definitely be many more tea parties in the future. We had a great time. It’s so fun now that she’s getting old enough to understand and play along. I love it.
Lynsey @MoscatoMom says
I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE that you guys are spending more time together!!!!
Katy says
This is so cute. It makes me remember when I used to have tea parties with my dad when I was little. And then with my grandma and later with my little sister – I had a lot of tea parties. It makes me want to have another – just for fun.