Teddy Bear Tea Party

Hello again,

We woke up to a great surprise this morning...a MOOSE in our yard! The two little ones came running into the bedroom shouting "you are not gonna believe this...you gotta come see!" so of course dh and I jumped out of bed and tore out into the other room...by then the moose had moved to the other side of the yard, so we had to scamper over to the sliding glass door, we were just in time to see him canter down the middle of the road! He was pretty good size, and had a nice rack. Earlier this evening, dd5 explained it like this..."we saw a enormous moose and we yelled to you and daddy, and it was so funny how you jumped out of bed! and he was really big and it scared the heck out of me, and he went running down the street." She said the "scared the heck" part several times today...I think she was having fun just saying it! lol

After that, things settled into a more normal rountine...

We had a wonderful day with some of our dear friends today!
As it happens, dh did end up taking ds out just before our friends arrived, and didn't return until after they had gone home...ds didn't seem upset, so I am guessing he and daddy had a grand time of it!
I didn't tell my kiddos what exactly I had planned because I wasn't sure 100% that our friends would be able to make it, but just before they were due to arrive I began to set up the table...they became very excited to see the table cloth go onto the table, and the tea set come out. I had them put chairs around the table for our "bear friends" which was exactly the number of our real friends...so they never guessed.
Then I took out the dress-up box and they all put on their best finery. Even my little daycare 2yo found a fancy dress to wear (well, actually I found it for her...she looked so cute!)
Not too long after that, my "surprise" arrived! Everyone was happy to be together. We started with tea and teddy grahams.


You can see all our bear friends in the photo, and here are a couple close ups of my best-dressed girls...G is wearing a dress from my late grandmother. I believe she made it herself as there is alot of hand stitching, and no tag. It's really quite a pretty dress:


B is wearing a dress her Auntie Kathy bought for her one year for Christmas. She has been very reserved around the camera lately...but honestly she did smile today!


After the tea party, we read a pop-up story about a polar bear who writes to his bear friends in other countries...it's very cute. Then we sorted our bears by size, color, clothing, etc. and compared them for more/less. Then we gave our bears awards for best dressed, softest, fuzziest, oldest, etc. The girls had to decided which bear got which award...I think they really enjoyed that part. Lastly we played dvd candyland...except that instead of candy or characters on the game squares, I had attached photos of the different kinds of bears...I did this once with the rainforest, and the kids seem to like this game just as much as the real game.

Afterwards, my friend and I had a chance to chit-chat while the girls played for a short time.

*Ü* Blessings,