“My mission-to make God loved-will begin after my death.
I will spend my heaven doing good on earth.
I will send a shower of roses.”
Saturday afternoon, in honor of St. Therese, we had a “Shower of Roses” Tea Party. It was just the children and I, since my husband was working on a fire engine for the day, and I actually nearly skipped doing anything special (other than letting the kids work on some of the printables I had created) since I had a low grade fever on Friday and still wasn’t feeling completely back to normal – thinking we would just wait until today, her traditional feast to celebrate.
However, dear St. Therese must have come to my rescue once again… I started feeling a little better that afternoon, and decided to try and pull together a simple little tea party. After a quick trip to our local market (to try and find some eclairs, ingredients to make our own eclairs, or maybe some cream puffs) everything just fell into place, and our “Shower of Roses” Tea Party turned out much lovelier than I had imagined!
~ On the Menu ~
St. Therese of Lisieux Tea
Cream and Sugar Cubes
Heavenly Rose Garden Tea Sandwiches
Fruit and Veggie Platter
“The Story of a Soul” Cookies
Saintly Symbols Cupcakes :: St. Therese of Lisieux
Rose Petal Scones
French Vanilla Rolled Wafers
Éclairs
St. Therese of Lisieux Tea
I pulled out my St. Therese Tea from Sancti-Teas, a couple precious statues, and my rose tea pots to get started! I purchased the tea awhile back, and use it for special occasions only, so I still have plenty. I also made a decaffeinated Red Rose tea that my children like as well.
Heavenly Rose Garden Tea Sandwiches
I then started working on some Tea Sandwiches. I wasn’t sure exactly what I was going to make, but wanted to try to come up with a Rose themed sandwich and ended up with these “Heavenly Rose Garden Tea Sandwiches!” They turned out so pretty and were not only delicious, but healthy as well! The perfect alternative to all the sweets, especially for this pregnant momma who has been gaining weight a little quicker than I would like!
I then went on to make some more Rose Tea Sandwiches, using Turkey Roses and Snap Pea Leaves – some with the Garden Vegetable Cream Cheese that I had used for the first tea sandwiches, and some with plain cream cheese for my younger children.
“The Story of a Soul” Cookies
These “Story of a Soul” cookies were a last minute addition, when I happened to see a package of Rose Colored (Strawberry) Bar Cookies on an end cap at the market. I put a little icing on the top of each (left over from my Little Flowers Meeting) in addition to a small mini candy rose, after deciding that it would take forever to write on them all with my Easy Writer Food Decorators.
Saintly Symbol Cupcakes :: St. Therese, the Little Flower
I haven’t posted about them all yet, but this is another one of the “Saintly Symbol Cupcakes” that I came up with for Wreath IV of Little Flowers, in honor of St. Therese, decorating the cupcakes with gold sprinkles, mini candy roses, and a chocolate cross
.
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Rose Petal Scones
I had recently run across this recipe for Rose Petal Drop Scones and considered making them, but honestly didn’t feel up to baking, nor was I able to find Rose Water, or edible Roses for that matter. Instead I purchased a little package of freshly baked Orange Cranberry Scones (the cranberry’s at least look somewhat like Rose Petals!) from the bakery, and placed them on one of my daughters Rose Tea Platters.
French Vanilla Rolled Wafers
Since St. Therese was French, these French Vanilla Rolled Wafers from the cupboard were a great addition to our tea.
Éclairs
Of course, our tea had to include Éclairs, St. Therese’s favorite treat, and I was happy to find four at the bakery. (In the past we have made our own, but our local market doesn’t carry the ladyfingers.) We already had plenty of treats to choose from, so each of my children split them, just one half each, which was plenty.
While I prepared the tea, the children rounded up some of our books about St. Therese, in addition to a few of our St. Therese dolls to display on the hutch. Afterwards they each choose a book to read during quite time and throughout the coming week.
I scattered rose shaped and pink tea lights over the table, which was covered with a light pink tablecloth and then our Angels and Roses lace tablecloth, while the boys set out our China and tea spoons.
Then it was finally time to say another little prayer to St. Therese and enjoy our tea!
Oh! I took a picture of my little Teapot Tea Infuser to share with you all! I purchased this awhile back at a little local tea shop, and rarely use it, since most of the time I opt for tea that comes in tea bags, but isn’t it so cute?!?
Rose absolutely loved that we let her have a china cup for the tea party…
… and it was so cute watching her pretend to give her doll tea from her spoon.
Everyone had such a great time, especially our little one, who just couldn’t stay awake for the whole party!
St. Therese, the little flower,
please pick me a rose from the heavenly garden
and send it to me with a message of love;
ask God to grant me the favor I thee implore
and tell Him I will love Him each day more and more.
please pick me a rose from the heavenly garden
and send it to me with a message of love;
ask God to grant me the favor I thee implore
and tell Him I will love Him each day more and more.
St. Therese, the Little Flower,
Pray for us!
Wondering if you could adopt me. This is so beautiful…and such a wonderful memory for your family . St. Therese has such a special place in our lives. God bless. Love the menu, love the pictures and thank you for sharing them with us.
This was AMAZING!!!!
Hope you are continuing to feel better.
Jessica! Bravo AGAIN! God bless you on today's traditional feast day! =)
Jessica, I love you…I truly do. That was so awesome what you did. e I love the cupcakes with the mini roses!!! I have a little Therese in heaven and this made my day.
Just beutiful Jessica! Very inspiring, i'll have to save this for next year and then get our's planned ahead of time. Though I'm tempted to run out right now and buy stuff for tea!!! Thank you so much for sharing and happy Feast Day to you!
WOW! How fun! I bet the kds really loved every moment of it!
Awesome!! I wish I was your neighbor so I could have joined your tea party. It's so professional. =) Those little rose sandwiches are the best! So lovely.
Wow! Wow! and Wow!! I love everything! So beautiful.
What a lovely celebration!
Hi Jessica,
I have been "dropping by" for a few weeks now, as you have such a lovely blog. I enjoy reading it, and have also learnt a lot! Many thanks for sharing, and Happy Feast day of St Therese to you.
Pax Christi.
Wow! So lovely Jessica. I wish I were your neighbor on the other side. 😉 What special treats for your children. So cute of your little one asleep at the table. God bless you all!
Everything is so beautiful!! I like your taste to do this Tea's… you are very creative! Also, congratulations on you anniversaty, you have a beautiful family!!! Blessings!
This is just so beautiful, what a feast!
Thank you so much. I'm a 3rd Order Carmelite and always on the lookout for fun Tea Parties to do with my four girls. What a delightful way to celebrate one of our favorite saints!