For-Tea Birthday Celebration

Back in November, Laura threw out the idea for a special tea to celebrate Katie and Jamie turning forty. I concurred and the Tea Room that would be available for our party of seven was in Post Falls, Idaho. The tea was planned for the actual day that Katie turned forty. Even though Jamie does not turn forty until the middle of January this was the opportune time to celebrate since we’d all be together at Christmas time.

On Saturday morning, December 27th, our two vehicles started our drive to Post Falls at 10am. It was a 90 mile journey. Our vehicle spent some of the time having Katie try to recall her forty birthdays. She did incredibly well remembering almost all of them. Greg and my three children are now all in their forties!

Jamie’s mom, Katie, Addy, Jamie, Jamie’s Granny, Laura and me.

The birthday girls.

Four generations strong.

Me and our youngest, Katie.

Katie and Laura.

Our most wonderful daughters-in-law. It brings tears to my eyes to see how God has brought us all together and the deep friendships our ‘girls’ share.

Addy had a special seat because her servings would be a little varied from the adult servings. She was quite pleased.

Ready for our soup course, which was a surprise part of our tea along with an Amuse Bouche.

A pinkie finger photo collage.

Addy got a pot of hot chocolate besides some herbal tea.

Amuse-bouches are small, single-bite dishes meant to “amuse the mouth” and offer a glimpse into a chef’s style before the meal begins. We actually enjoyed these bites before the soup course. The one in the center was for Addy, a mac&cheese bite.

Her soup portion was in a smaller cup than ours.

Addy got her own two tiered tea offering and she thought that was very cool. Her sandwiches were peanut butter and Jam, Ham and Cheese, and a Cucumber Cream Cheese Christmas tree sandwich. (The Peanut Butter-Jam sandwiches were her favorite)

The other three tiered offerings were shared between two of us.

The sandwiches and scones are always my favorites. I think we all especially enjoyed the Chicken Salad Croissant.

The snickerdoodle scones were also a favorite!

Since this was still part of their ‘Special Christmas Tea Time’ the bread for the cucumber tea sandwiches were Christmas trees.

It is a good thing that the sweets are small portions.

The tea hostesses did all the tea pouring. There were two bells on the table and if there was anything we wanted or needed we could ring the bells to let them know.

There were several tea table areas besides ours and this one, above, is the only other one I took a photo of.

We had a lovely time being served and celebrating our girls in this special way.

I need to mention that the temperature on this day was 28 degrees and there was also a biting wind!

On the way home we took advantage of the lower gasoline prices in Idaho and filled up our vehicle before crossing into Washington State.

The drive back to Bayles’ mountain was smooth sailing and we got ready for our next birthday party for Katie, Jamie, Dan, and Josh! The Bayles Birthday Bonanza finale was epic. That will be another post.

For-Tea

Ten years ago the four of us enjoyed tea at the Queen Mary Tea Room in Seattle for Katie’s 3oth birthday. Today the four of us along with Addy, Linda and Florence will be celebrating at a Tea Room in Post Falls, Idaho. We are raising our pinkies to Katie and Jamie who are turning a number they are both shy to mention but you can do the math. Today is Katie’s actual birthday and Jamie’s will be in nineteen more days. There will be a full post devoted to our time in the near future. Ten years ago was Jamie’s first experience having tea in a tearoom. Today will be Addy’s first ‘tea experience’ in an actual tearoom. May the memory making moments continue!

Cedar + Elm at The Lodge

Before I move on to today’s post I wanted to let you know that our home is safe and evacuation levels have stabilized but the fire is still burning.

On Friday September 5th Laura and Katie treated me to tea at Cedar + Elm at The Lodge at St. Edward Park.

There was live music and the artist had a beautiful mellow voice which made for a pleasant background of music.

When we were done with our leisurely tea we walked about the Lodge.

Lady of the Lake of Arthurian legend.

Thank you to Laura and Katie for the nice treat and lovely afternoon together. Thank you, too, to Josh and Laura for always being so hospitable to us.

We spent last Thursday on the road to travel to Bothell then spent the next three full days on the Westside. We met up with friends on Thursday and Saturday. On Saturday morning we attended a conference with Paul Tripp on Suffering. It was such a well spent 2-1/2 hours! On Sunday evening our westside kids treated us to dinner to celebrate Greg’s birthday a couple days early. More about those events at a later date.

It has been a relief to be out of the smoke filled air in Colville for these few days. We are on the road back to Colville today and hope the air quality improves each day to come.

Tea ~Daughter Tea Queen Mary

Welcome to Tea Time 2025. These posts will be about Tea Rooms we’ve been to, Teas we’ve given for friends and family, Church Tea events, and High Tea in restaurants from 2008 to the present. Tea in the U.S.A., Tea in England and Tea in Canada. Many of the Tea Rooms are no longer in business, which is sad.

This post is from December 27, 2015.

Our youngest turned thirty today. We started celebrating yesterday.

We, our daughters and me went to the Queen Mary Tea Room to celebrate birthdays on Boxing day.

Jamie was married into our family in June of 2015.

Laura and Katie have birthdays in December and Jamie, Dan, and Josh have birthdays in January.

“Such items, if properly prepared and portered, jingle and tinkle, twinkle and shine, as if to announce their approach, and all the cups and saucers, the silver spoons and the sugar bowl, the steaming hot water and the shining strainer, the teapot and the plate of delicate sandwiches – all seem to combine and say as one, “Let your worries cease for now; the world is aright again!” And in the welcome pouring of the tea and the delightful crunch of the cucumber and cress sandwiches, not to mention the promise of the coming cakes and the possible surprise of strawberries and cream to follow, all else is held at bay: the past is forgotten, the future does not exist, and all is peace. ”

Toad Triumphant ~ by William Horwood

It was Jamie’s first time to enjoy a formal tea. Pinkies up!

This is the last in my series of Tea Time 2025 where I’ve gone back and reposted all the fun tea experiences from the past. If by chance or by will we end up in another tea room this year I’ll share the experience but until then I say toodle pip to our Tea Times.

Tea ~ Fullerton

This post was from October 17th of 2009. That was sixteen years ago!

Southern California is having a weather event and we are HOT HOT HOT. Back in April of 2009 my family planned a nice afternoon at the Rose Tree Cottage in Pasadena for my mother’s 85th birthday. It was a disappointing day for my mom because she fell on an uneven sidewalk when she arrived and had to spend the afternoon and evening at the hospital instead of having tea.

My mother giving us some words of wisdom at her birthday tea in 2007.

We decided it was high time to get together for tea again and thought we’d have some nice Fall weather for our get together. Well it’s Fall but we are having some summer weather. This time my mom, all my sisters, a SIL, nieces, and little grand niece are gathering in Fullerton. We’re praying for an accident free day!

Half the ladies in my family met for tea yesterday in Fullerton, California. We had the Senior member of our family, our 85 year old mom and the youngest member of our family, our 1 month old Grand Niece/Great Granddaughter in attendance.

The venue was the Spring Tea Garden in Fullerton, California. We were treated well during our time there.

Avery was born September 17th

This venue is still open for events.

That was 16 years ago which means this Fall our Grandniece Avery will be turning 16!

Tea ~ Queen Mary Katie’s Birthday

This post was from a day long celebration of our daughter’s birthday in 2013. Her birthday is December 27th but the post didn’t go live until December 28th.

Our first stop for our Celebrating Katie day was at the Queen Mary Tea Room in Seattle which is located close to the University of Washington.

The waiter popped by our table and asked if we were celebrating anything special and we said, “Why yes, today is Katie’s birthday”. He asked if she’d like to wear a crown…

We said yes!

A long time friend of ours lives in the neighborhood and was able to join us for breakfast.

Queen Katie and Bridget

Bridget’s sister Jamie was Katie’s Maid of Honor. Jamie has been gone for over a year now on a trip around the world. We talked about Jamie and wondered if she’d be back home by next Christmas. Bridget is going to meet Jamie in New Zealand for several days in February before Jamie heads to South America.

Back to the Queen Mary…

The traditional tea sipping shot!

We said farewell to Santa and our breakfast buddy and headed to Destination #2. I’ll share that next week.

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Tea ~ Marysville

This was originally posted on December 2, 2015.

We chose Attic Secrets in Marysville for our tea on the Saturday after Thanksgiving (2015) since we planned to shop at the Navy Exchange Complex afterwards.

We each chose our teacups and brought them to our table and selected our tea.

We were so pleased to see a gluten free tea choices for Letty on the menu, too.

My sister Lana, Sister-in-law Letty, Me, DIL Laura and daughter Katie.

After our lovely leisurely tea we headed to the Navy Exchange to do a little tax free shopping. We made a couple more stops to Cost Plus, Hobby Lobby, and a grocery store before heading back to Josh and Laura’s to see what the guys accomplished. Besides their construction project Josh managed to make a great pot of chili and a pan of gluten free cornbread for us all to enjoy.

This Tea Room is still open!

Tea ~ White Heather Tea Room

This post is from April 6th 2011

On Saturday we walked many miles around town and ended up for an afternoon tea in the Oak Bay area of Victoria. It was a wonderful authentic English High Tea that was recommended to us by Pondside who lives on Vancouver Island. She graciously made our reservations for us including instructions not to be seated in the middle of the restaurant. We had a delightful experience at the White Heather Tea Room and would recommend it to you. Later I will post about meeting Pondside on Sunday and what a wonderful day we had together.

It was so delightful to meet Pondside face to face on this trip.

We visited this tea room on a Sister weekend the four of us enjoyed in Victoria B.C. for my 60th birthday. This tea room is still in business!

We stayed at the Beaconsfield for our weekend.

Back to the present: Yesterday was the first day of Summer and we got a nice rain shower and today we are expecting some more rain. Lots of heat forecasted for many areas in the U.S.A. the next few days. Colville is supposed to be 55 F today with rain starting at noon. How are the temps where you are?

Tea ~ MGCC Cookbook

Seventeen years ago today the Mennonite Girls Can Cook Blog was launched by Lovella.

The Mennonite Girls Can Cook Blog began on June 7, 2008. I’m adding links to the beginning of the blog and to some of the anniversary blog posts from Lovella.

Here is Lovella’s post from our 1 year anniversary.

This was our third year anniversary.

Ten Year Anniversary Post.

The ten year anniversary post announced that we would not be publishing a recipe a day anymore on the Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog. Since 2018 recipes from the past have been refreshed and published.

This next Tea Time post was for our MGCC Celebrations book photos. It happened in July of 2012. There wasn’t a post about this tea because it would soon be featured in our 2nd Cookbook, Celebrations.

We gathered in Bev’s garden and set a tea table. We had all prepared several of the dishes that would be featured in our new cookbook to enjoy together.

It was a photo-op for the cookbook and for the promotion of the cookbook.

All the recipes for these tea delights can be found in our cookbook.

This time in our lives was a continuation of a whirlwind of activities stemming from the launch of our first cookbook and then our 2nd cookbook. We had book signing events from Abbotsford to Chilliwack and Manitoba and more events that stemmed from the Mennonite Girls Can Cook Play in Indiana and Ohio.

Our last major publication was our devotional, Bread for the Journey, which was published in 2016.

My posts about this new journey publication are here and here.

Our day to day new recipe postings have ceased but our friendship our ‘Tenship’ continues. We have experiences and ties that will continue to connect us for the rest of our lives. Thanks be to God for His Providence in bringing us together seventeen years ago.

Tea ~ St. Ives

This post was originally titled As I Was Going to St. Ives and posted on November 4th 2013

As I was going to St. Ives,
I met a man with seven wives,
Each wife had seven sacks,
Each sack had seven cats,
Each cat had seven kits,
kits, cats, sacks, wives,
How many were going to St. Ives?

There are differing views as to which St. Ives this nursery rhyme/riddle was referring to but many believe that St. Ives in Cornwall is a good choice because it was a busy fishing port and they would need many cats to help with the rats and mice destroying the fishing gear.

We took the advice of our friend who lived in Cornwall to take the train to St. Ives because it could be hard to find parking in this busy port destination. The day before had been so gloomy and rainy so when we woke up to beautiful sunshine on September 18th we let Jeeves lead us to the railway stop. We met up with quite a crowd who had the same idea as us and were ready to enjoy the seaside in the sunshine. Thankfully we found the last parking spot in the train waiting area.

Here we are waiting in the que for the next train to arrive.

We had beautiful views of the sea as we rode the train on the short trip to St. Ives.

When we arrived our first order of business was to find the Tea Room where we had decided to eat a meal and enjoy our first Cornish cream tea.

Bliss! I have to admit it wasn’t easy to find the tea room in this bustling humanity filled town. With narrow cobbled streets filled to the brim we made our way to the end of the sea walk. When we finally spotted “the Tea Room” and got our seats we could finally…”Keep calm and carry on”

It’s amazing how a satisfying meal can make your outlook so much better and the crowds so much easier to coexist with.

The tea room was at the far end of the town and the next photo shows the view of the harbor with the tide out looking out from the tea room. I’ll be sharing photos of the harbor after the tide rolls in soon with more of the great views we enjoyed in St. Ives along St. Ives Bay.

I’m heading outside in the brisk sunny weather to try to gather up some of the leaves that fell over the weekend. The rains are headed our way again soon and I want to take advantage of this dry window before the leaves get real soggy. I’m hoping to get more creative mojo this week, too, with some final preparations for a get together at this old house on Sunday November 10th.

Blessings!

Back to the present here in June of 2025. We are getting things accomplished on our property and I’ll have an update, soon. Instead of fall prep we are in the middle of summer preparations. It is warming up. Have a great Friday, everyone!

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Category Archives: Tea Rooms