Tag Archives: Cucumber Cream Cheese Tea Sandwiches

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.

Tea at Lovella’s

To get to this lovely setting and presentation it takes lots of planning ahead and sometimes it takes many hands.

All the Mennonite Girls from British Columbia and me, the U.S.A. cousin, hadn’t been together since December. It was high tea time for us to get together again and Lovella graciously offered her home knowing that it is easier for me to get there from the U.S.A.

Can you take enough photos to document all the planning, baking and creating of these beautiful delicacies?

Anneliese baked, mixed and put together this tiered platter of gluten free tea bites for Julie and all of us. They were so tasty and she’ll share the recipe sometime in the future on our blog.

There were eight of us around the table on this day and we sorely missed our two Mennonite Girls from Manitoba. Lovella made these beautiful cookies for each of us and they served as place cards letting us know where to sit.

Some close ups of what we enjoyed.

Kathy made this fruit salad with a nice dressing that she will share soon.

And here is a little glimpse in how it all came together just before we sat down at Lovella’s table.

Lovella worked ahead of time to make the tea come together making pastry puff cones to stuff with an egg salad mixture and other tea treats.

Judy put together a lovely Earl Grey punch that she’ll be sharing soon on the blog.

Bev made some wonderful tarts with basil and other yummy ingredients, bottom right. Lovella also made mini croissants from scratch, rhubarb scones, and plain scones. Lovella provided lemon curd, blackberry preserves and creme fraiche to go with the scones.

When we ate enough of the savory treats Lovella brought out these delicacies that she had also prepared ahead of time for us. Melt in your mouth pavlova goodness!

We had a great time of catching up and taking care of some business for some upcoming events.

I’m very thankful for my Mennonite Girl friends and all I’ve learned and enjoyed since God plopped me into this community. Thank you Lovella for such a lovely time that you thought out and brought together for all of us. Thanks to all the other girls for their contributions to our wonderful time of feasting and of fellowship. It was a sacred time.