How to Make Beau-Tea-Ful Moments

This shop to create Beau-Tea-Ful Moments with Bigelow Tea has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone, but I’d love to hear about your fantastic moments too.

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My two beautiful babies are growing up. Can you believe Charlie and Lena are seven and five already! I never wanted to believe it when people told me they would grow up right before my eyes, but it’s true. The kids cackle with glee every time I mention how fast they are growing up. It’s gotten to the point where they’ve started to ask me if I can believe how big they are because they love the reaction I give.

It helps me get through it all when the girls ask me if I remember what they were like as babies, or to have me tell them what it was like when they were younger. This I can handle. Keeping the memories alive is a wonderful thing for me, and it’s a great way for me to share my life, as well as the girls own lives with them. These are the memories they can’t remember because they were too young and it inspires me to continue making memorable moments everyday with these wonderful kiddos so I have more to share with them.

One of my favorite memories is tea parties. We’ve been doing these for years and they’ve been amazing. We’ve invited friends and family, pets, dolls and stuffed animals. Everyone would get dressed to the nines when we threw a tea party. I mean we had hair done, headbands, jewelry, dresses, boas, it was amazing!

Check out this work of fashion, designed by Charlie.

Don’t think the party stopped at the fashion either. The girls would create a tablescape for the tea party with a food spread no one could match! We had everything from the healthiest of meals to the sweetest of treats. Best of all, not a calorie to be had by anyone!

Of course as the girls have gotten older our tea parties matured with them. We moved to real hot tea with sugar and cream, along with cookies and crackers. The best part was baking the cookies with the girls. They take after me and fully enjoy every moment in the kitchen.

Now, we’ve moved on to our next stage of tea time with the girls. During the winter we make a pot of hot tea, but with the heat of summer upon us it’s time for iced tea.

When we have tea we won’t settle for the powdered variety. It’s fresh brewed tea or nothing at all! I’m loving Bigelow Tea American Breakfast right now. It gives me an energy boost following our afternoon tea so I can keep up with the girls. You know, all those memories and moments we’re making take a lot of energy!

For the best cup of fresh brewed Bigelow iced tea this is what I do.

First, get your favorite cup, this one was given to me by the girls on Mother’s Day. Add in your hot water, then the Bigelow American Breakfast tea bag of your choice.

While that brews, grab your favorite tall glass and fill it with ice.

Finally, fill up that tall glass with your fresh brewed iced tea and enjoy!

This is exactly what I do for our summer tea time. We’re planning to have a huge afternoon tea bash for the 4th of July this year. Bigelow tea is perfect for this event because it’s All American! It’s an American company made by an American family. I love that almost 4 million bags of tea have been sent to troops overseas with Bigelow’s Tea for Troops program. As a military family this gives me a huge smile on my face. You can find additional information about Tea for Troops at https://www.bigelowtea.com/Responsibility/Support-Our-Troops

For the party I’ll make enough iced tea for everyone in attendance, I’m sure the girls will help me. Then it’s time for our food. My husband will be manning the grill, so it’s chicken, brats and roasted veggies galore. It may not look like a traditional tea party, but for us it will be perfect. We’ve always been known to bend the boundaries of convention.

For some of our smaller tea gatherings this summer I’ll still want to serve cookies, but sometimes we’re just in the mood for a little more sophistication. For that we make tea sandwiches.

Here are three of our favorite tea sandwich recipes that pair perfectly with a glass of iced Bigelow tea.

Turkey and Swiss on Rye with Apples

So simple and extra delicious. Get some dark rye, spread spicy brown mustard on both slices. Top it with swiss, turkey and some thinly sliced green apples.

A quick tip for cutting your tea sandwiches. I like to remove the crusts for presentation (don’t worry, I save them and snack on them later so there’s no waste), then you can use a knife to cut them in any shape you want, or grab a sharp cookie cutter and cut out some different shapes for fun.

Tomato and Cucumber on White with Herbed Feta

I love cucumber and tomato on this one, just thinly slice them, but the real hero here is the herbed feta, cream cheese spread.

• 4oz Feta cheese
• 4oz cream cheese (softened)
• 1/3 cup mayonnaise
• 4 cloves of minced garlic
• 1/4 tsp basil
• 1/4 oregano
• 1/8 tsp dill
• 1/8 tsp thyme

Mix all ingredients together to make the feta cheese spread. Next, spread it on both slices of the white bread, layer the cucumbers and tomato on and cut into desired shape.

Blueberries on Wheat with Walnut Cream Cheese

Another easy one for you. Just take some softened cream cheese and mix in some chopped walnuts. Spread that on two slices of whole wheat bread, then top with blueberries.

That’s it, three tea sandwiches for afternoon tea time, three glasses of refreshing Bigelow iced tea and a group of happy girls hanging around the table telling stories and being goofy together. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

You can create tea time moments like ours with Bigelow American Breakfast tea too, whether it’s on the 4th of July or any other time this summer. Pick it up at Walmart in the tea aisle.

Follow Bigelow Tea on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest for more information and recipes.

I shared some of my favorite moments with my kids over the years, now it’s time for you to share some of your most memorable moments with your kids in the comments below.