365 Days With Kiddos - #11 - Have a Tea Party with Fairy "Milk"

I recently posted images of a friend's vintage tea cups. My wonderful friend, Kirsten, lives on Harmony Farm in Western Maine. I lived in Maine for close to 10 years and I have known Kiki for 11 years. We met when a mutual friend introduced us when I was selling some of my photography at an art sale. She was a reporter for the local weekly paper and we met soon after to talk about my work. The rest is history. Kirsten and I have worked on some amazing projects together as a writer and photographer duo, many of which were for the Kingfield Historical Society and the Mount Abram High School. We even received a grant to produce a documentary book with high school students who we were teaching photojournalism.

Over the course of these projects we became close friends. To say we have consumed massive amounts of chocolate and tea together would be an understatement. Since leaving Maine we have continued to have our tea parties via phone. This is actually a great way to keep the tradition alive but I always long to see my friend face to face.

This summer, we spent three days in Maine during the course of a trip to Ottawa to see family. Most of the time was spent at a family reunion in a town about 2 hours from where I lived in Maine. We did make it to my old town, but for less than 24 hours. Our family headed straight to Harmony Farm where Kiki and fresh blackberry tarts were waiting!

My husband, Andre, has known Kirsten for almost as long as he has known me. I met him in a church, while photographing his cousin's wedding, in the same town that Kirsten later got married in. When I met him, he lived 270 miles away in Canada. Soon, so did I. When we returned to Maine for Kiki's wedding, we stayed in the same inn as the whole wedding party and we could see the building where we were introduced from the window. Not only do Kirsten and Andre share the same birthday, they now share a friendship, too. Kiki has been to visit us in Banff, where she and I had high tea at the Banff Springs Hotel. Kiki has gotten to know our daughter, Quin, but this was the first time she met little Emmanuelle, who LOVED both Kiki and her tarts!

Like me, Quin knows how to enjoy a tea party. In fact, Kiki calls her a "professional". She got such a kick out of watching Quin pour and fix her tea and eat her little wrapped chocolates and several tarts.

Have you ever had a tea party with your child? Quin actually drinks decaf or herbal tea, with lots of milk and honey. Children in China, Japan, Korea, and India all grow up drinking tea. It is refreshing, has no calories without milk or honey, and is ph neutral so it is not bad for teeth. Tea has many health benefits and both fruit and mint teas appeal to kids. Everything from simple sandwiches with the crust cut off to fruit cups to baked goods are appropriate. And of course a pretty tablecloth and fancy tea cups add to the fun.

If you don't think you child will drink tea, you can make them a simple drink my father used to make for me. In fact, he made it for my brothers and I, and even they still talk about it. It is called Fairy Milk. The reason I put it in quotes in the title of this post is because it can be made with cow's milk, but it can also be made with soy, almond, or rice milk.

Dad's Fairy Milk
By Tiffany Teske

Ingredients
- a cup of milk
- food coloring (I recommend using natural food colorings which you can find online or you can make)
- honey

Directions
On the stove top or in the microwave warm the milk to a good drinkable temperature for a child. Let them select the color they want their milk to be and allow them to put a couple of drops of the coloring into their cup. Next let them add the honey and stir. Then gulp, gulp, gulp but remind them to keep their pinky finger up :)