A tea party for Nora-Kate and Grace!

Back in my single years, I enjoyed giving tea parties for the little girls in my life, including my nieces and the young daughters of my close friends. Two of those little girls, my friend Liz's daughters, Cydney and Alley, are now mothers with little girls of their own, so yesterday after church, I hosted a tea for their little girls, Nora-Kate, 8, and Grace, 3.

They were as delightful as I knew they would be! I was happy to learn that both girls actually like tea, so all of us around the table were sipping some of the last of my Brigadoon tea from Adagio, sold only on leap years. Here are Nora-Kate and her mom, Cydney.

And here's little Grace with her mom, Alley. Turns out that Alley is the biggest tea drinker of the bunch, a fellow introvert who drinks tea every day.

This is Alley having tea twenty-something years ago at my (then) house!

And here are Cydney and Alley and some of the other little girls we went to church with back in the day. Such a sweet memory! (Liz had these photos in a scrapbook.)

So for this tea, I made cucumber cream (recipe here) and used it on the teapot-shaped sandwiches.

And I used Queen Charlotte's brand pimiento cheese (from Publix) on the heart-shaped sandwiches. Very good!

We had homemade cranberry mini scones, served with apple jelly, whipped cream, and pumpkin spice whipped cream.

I cheated and let Walmart make my desserts, and they got great reviews! Their macarons weren't mushy at all and still had some crunch to the shells, so that was a win.

I also bought a tray of brownies, seven-layer bars, and lemon bars, and I would totally do this again.

To get three different varieties of treats for under $12? Yes, please!

Oh, and here I am with my friend Liz, the one who started this lovely chain of friendship.

It was such a fun afternoon, and now I'm pondering whether I might live long enough to host a tea for Nora-Kate and Grace's daughters. Wouldn't that be something?