in the merry month of May

At one time I toyed with the idea of naming my second daughter Mae, with an e.  After all it only has three letters and one syllable and I have strong inclinations toward preferring such names. Instead she was given her name by rites of family consensus. May just happened to be the month I gave birth to both of my daughters, seven years apart.

Since Charlotte shared her birthday last year with another very important event,  I felt as if this year a birthday party with friends was due her. So as promised nine little ladies showed up wearing their summer dresses on a Wednesday afternoon to attend a tea party with all the trimmings in celebration of Charlotte's eighth birthday.

 The entire day beforehand was spent baking and preparing such treats as cucumber sandwiches, ham roll-ups, peanut butter and jelly heart-shaped sandwiches, vanilla cupcakes,

  

lavender cookies with a dusting of powdered sugar,

 and strawberries dipped in dark chocolate.

The morning of the party, watermelon balls were scooped, cream scones were baked and then all goodies were arranged on the dining room buffet.

Pots of tea were served in china teacups.

   

And of course there were presents and giggles too.

 After genteel civility had reached its limit, the nine young ladies scampered outside to the back yard to play in the playhouse.  While in the dining room I sat down and had a cup of tea with a dear friend of mine.