"Cinderella, dressed in yella, went up stairs to kiss a fella. Made a mistake and kissed a snake! How many doctors did it take?"
It all started two months ago. I was picking the kids up from school on an icy February afternoon. The kind of day when the wind whips in biting gusts between the buildings and razor-sharp bits of snow sting your face. I can't even call them "snowflakes" because "knives" are a much more accurate description. I wrapped my scarf around my chin as I walked the block and a half from where I'd parked the car to their schoolhouse. I was eager to get home, turn on the stove and start a pot of mushroom risotto for dinner. As we drove home, she told me that she wanted to have her birthday party at a certain pizza place. You, no doubt, know the one - singing robots, silly music, flashing lights & the electronic hum of enough arcade games to make you half crazy, and mediocre pizza at best. I think every town must have one and there's nothing wrong with this restaurant, once or twice in a blue moon. But we've celebrated more than our fair share of birthdays there. And in any case, I had other plans in mind.
She planted a seed that February afternoon and I began dreaming of April! Dreaming of the promise of warmer weather (though no less temperamental, I must say). Of planting the first pea and lettuce seeds in the garden, of cutting the first lilacs for the dining room table and watching the irises open-wide their bright faces to the sun. Of cherry blossoms, green grass, and rain instead of needle-like snow! I'd been planning a garden tea party for months, since her last birthday party, in fact, though in Colorado, the garden is only just awakening from it's winter slumber in mid-April and the weather is still quite cool. So we'd bring the garden into the kitchen. We'd tape flowers to the walls and butterflies to the ceiling. And there would be vases of flowers of all sorts. The only requirement being that they are all pink, naturally. We sent Grandma out on a special mission to scour all the second hand stores and antique shops in town for just the right China tea cups with matching saucers. A fun job it you ask me! Each cup would be different and unique like the guests themselves, but each would have a pretty floral design that would fit beautifully in to the garden that our kitchen would become!
