graciemobile

Whew. I am sitting down here on the couch exhausted, pooped, worn down complete, a two for one tired deal.

When I first woke up this morning and was laying in bed my middle sister came in to chat(this is becoming a daily occurrence). “Grace, can we have our tea party today?” I had promised the two girls a tea party so that they could wear their new dress-up dresses I made them for Christmas.

I had already been considering doing it today, but now I was presented with the question. “I’ll think about it.” I said, thinking of all that I had to do. Cause let me tell you something, if I am going to have a tea party, I’m going to have a tea party and it’s going to be all out. Fancy dishes, decorations, invitations, dessert, prettily folded napkins, the works! But to make it more difficult on this particular day, mom and I have to go to the furniture store to pick out fabric for a new chair that they are buying me(long story).

So being the wonderful multi-tasker that I am, I set my baby sister to work on invitations. Since she can’t read, so she didn’t know that the words said, “You’re Invited”. I thought about setting my other sister to work on the cake, but mom cautiously advised that I oversee that myself.

I went to the furniture store, picked out a pretty color of yellow fabric, and then went home to finish, or rather begin, preparations. Make the cake, clean the room, decorate the table(find a table for starters) etc.

The cake is made, and spread with marshmellow cream instead of frosting. It was all that we had in the house. I added some sprinkles and Smarties to make a totally adorable polka dot cake.

Now my younger brothers are really cool fellas. They can enjoy a rough it and tough it wrestling match, but they also can enjoy a daintier tea party with their sisters. Since this was an extra special party, I decided it would be just girls. So I called them into my room and told them that I was having a girls only party. I assured them again and again that I would make them some cake too and that we could have our own special, “boy party”, but my littlest brother was beginning to tear up in sadness. I began grasping for something to make their party sound exciting. “We can have a, uh, a Lego party!”

Instantaneously the wet eyes were chased away by Fourth of July sunshiny smiles. My younger brothers ADORE Legos, and so a Lego themed party was right up their alley. “We’ll have a special cake with Lego candy from the store, and you can’t come unless you bring Legos.” No problem there, in fact, I am going to have to borrow some Legos so that I can come to my own party.

I am eating a late lunch at 3:00, the tea party is scheduled for 3:30. Wash the tea set, make the tea, finish decorating, put on some Irish music for background feeling, slip into a dress, put my hair up in a ponytail. “Welcome, come right in. Would you like some tea? Can I get you some cake?”

I am a big pretender. Pretend play was pretty much what I did exclusively when I was younger, and I still do pretend to some degree. So tea parties are right up MY alley.

The cake was a hit, one of my sisters ate 4 pieces(they were small, but she still wanted the rest of us to eat that much to feel justified. My youngest sister was constantly guzzling down her cup and then, “Mowre tea?” Ah!!!!!!!!!!

It was a ton of work, but the smiles of delight on their faces was quite enough to satisfy me. You know, every time I spend extra time with my siblings, and I see the delight on their faces, I feel richly rewarded. You would not believe how much your siblings value your time. Of all the gifts that you can give them, that is the key one. Time.

When your siblings are bouncing in your face, being irritating, nagging at you, you really don’t feel like they treasure you. But what I have learned, is that those irritating things are actually them trying to communicate to you that they want your time. They just need to learn how to do it appropriately.

So do this, look them in the face and say,”Do you need something?” Or if they are bugging you about doing something with them, either give up whatever pleasure you were intending on doing and hang out with them for a while. Or schedule a time(WRITE IT DOWN) to do it later. But letting them know that they are important to you is priceless. When they feel valued by you they will feel that they can do anything. I mean, you are their HERO! “Gracie said this, Gracie once did that, Gracie knows how to.”

I hear that all the time. When my siblings want a creative idea, they come to me. When they need help on a set up, or solving a problem, they come to me. When they saw something funny or had a neat experience, they come to me.

And all of the sibling fun doesn’t have to be a big gung-ho tea party. It can be as simple as making some construction paper Valentines, or letting them help you make cookies, or taking them for a walk. And that is something that they will NEVER, ever forget.