Prairie Primer Schoolmarms Go to Tea

 The Prairie Primer schoolmarms from our co-op were able to get out of town for an afternoon of bliss at Cup of Blessings Tea Parlor in Wallowa, OR. We decided we needed to do something fun to celebrate our making it through the Prairie Primer unit study. Out of five moms, four were able to attend. Poor Stephanie wasn't able to make it, so another friend of ours, Jaime, was able to join us in her place. We had a lovely, restful afternoon of eating, drinking five pots tea, walking around the garden, and of course, fellowship!

An exact replica of the dress I wore to my senior prom was hanging in the corner of the tea room. This dress wasn't even in style when I was a teenager, but I loved it so much, I didn't care, and wore it anyway.

Judi always does an amazing job with the presentation of the food she serves. She started us off with a creamy Earl Grey tea and some colorful veggie/cucumber cups.

Beautiful hands folded in prayer.

Along with cucumber sandwiches (shown in the above picture), she served chicken almond and smoked ham and Gouda sandwiches. Delicious! She always encourages us to eat the violets, too, since they are so good for you. We had the Bourbon St. Vanilla roobios tea to go with these.

After the sandwiches, came her huge, yummy lemon scones. She even had a whole wheat scone that was wonderful. She serves it with homemade lemon curd and Devon cream. We had a pot of Valley of Peace (and almond flavored roobios tea) to go with these.

Last but not least, came a lemon rhubarb cake. Can I just say that it tasted as wonderful as it looks? Wow, Judi can cook! She served us a Thai lemon ginger roobios tea with this dessert.

We enjoyed browsing her gift shop and trying on hats. These hats had to have weighed at least 5 lbs a piece!  I can always count on Jaime to be silly with me. Anyone who knows me well, knows that I adore hats.

In between scones and dessert, we walked around the garden. It was a little early for most of the flowers, but we found a few. I wanted to take pictures of each of the ladies since we are usually the ones behind the camera. The ladies were beautiful models for me, and I had so much fun setting up portrait shots. This is my sweet friend Beth.

The lovely Christine. Doesn't she look like she is straight out of a Downtown Abby episode? Loved her outfit!

I had fun editing this picture in black and white, leaving just a splash of color with the tea pot.

Now that my kids are older, I love wearing black and white again.

The lovely Jaime.

I had fun editing this photo, too.

This was my favorite picture of "Coy Cora".  Isn't she adorable?

Here we all are, enjoying the garden together.

I like this pic in black and white, too. It has been a privilege to know these women and call them my friends.  We've decided we need to do this every year to celebrate the end of each school year. It is so important to take these "Sabbath moments" and really have time to rest and relax. We were at the tea parlor for nearly 6 hours and it felt like the time raced by. Can't wait for next year!

Happy Memorial Day Everyone! God Bless, Jackie