Picnic Tea Party

Not sure what it is with picnics and tea parties and little girls, but, I seem to be partaking in these fancy buffets more than I imagined...

It usually starts off with a simplistic picnic: A blanket on the floor (or a place mat on the table to stay out of Oggie's curious reach), miniature picnic basket, some milk, sugar, tea (water), nuts, and raisins, all in tinkling ceramic ware.



The finicky little hostess is not happy with this skeletal spread. An elaborate tea seems to be in order. Out comes the flour, water, salt, cream of tartar and food coloring and in minutes we have fresh and warm red, green, and purple play dough to present a banquet: strawberries, plums, blueberries, dill pickles, ants-on-a-log, purple carrots (the original), sliced green eggs with red yolk, green bread slices, purple cake with red icing, red pie with purple filling, apples, grapes, and neat little baskets to serve these delicacies in, plus a tall cup of strawberry drink...

And who should decide to stop by? A fairy. A Fruit Fairy. Who loves fruits. And appears wherever people are eating fruits. (Fruit flies, I hear myself thinking).



After the first hour of this tea banquet picnic, I am ready to retire and ruminate, but, the hostess refuses to excuse me. When the grumpy little Prince Oggie decides to grace us with his insistent presence, he is reluctantly welcomed but not offered any of the delicious items on the menu.

Tempers Flare. Voices Blare. But the picnic tea banquet goes on despite the Clash of the Tiny Wills.

Purplish-red Sun and red-green Bunny and red-headed-purple Kitty all materialize and dematerialize in full play dough glory over the next half hour, frustrating the hostess as her sole invited guest's (c'est moi) attention is unfairly divided.

The honored guest (aka Appa) is expected to arrive any minute from his "urgent" hardware store trip. We know he is coming soon because we called him. The excitement begins to mount. And as soon as Appa walks in the door, Prince Oggie and his mom are cast away. The effervescent hostess proceeds to stuff her special guest, beaming proudly as he appreciates each and every morsel until he is stuffed.

Relegated to be the clean-up lady, I hunt for the bits and pieces of disembodied bunny and kitty around the house while keeping an eye on the stove, mentally deconstructing and blobbing up the fruits and vegetables by color...