Many of you will already know the heart-breaking story of the beautiful Ava Rosemeyer. It would have been her eight birthday yesterday. Out of a yearning for what might have been, the concept of Ava’s Tea Party was born. I wouldn’t even presume to be able articulate any of it any better than her mother can, so please have a look at her website.
Now you don’t need to talk phoebe and i into pink sugary things, and perhaps because the girls are close in age, or perhaps because her mother’s words touch my soul every time i visit her blog, but there was no question of us not doing something. We invited a couple of little friends over and the pink planning began.
We made the cutest little strawberry mousse ‘milkshakes’, pink and white meringue kisses, marshmallows, cupcakes, quiches, heart sugar cookies and strawberries double dipped in milk and white chocolate.
Phoebe’s birthday is in January which means she never gets to take cupcakes into school on her birthday so we decided to make an extra two dozen cupcakes, two shades of pink buttercream icing, a load of pink fondant hearts and flowers, sprinkles and even edible glitter, and had the girls decorate the cupcakes.
Like snowflakes, no two of these cupcakes were the same and the girls had a gorgeous time listening to girly songs and piping beauty onto each cupcake. They were all pink as we decided that even the boys in their class, if they had to choose between pink cupcakes and no cupcakes, would choose pink ones. (turns out we were right).
It’s hard to imagine anything good coming out the senseless tragedy of Ava’s story, but there were at least two things. One is the advice and growing awareness created by Ava’s rule and the postcard below (click on the pic to see it larger). The other is need to grab the moment and the people you love and hold them close and remember to be thankful always for what you have, because life is a bit like a three year old.. fragile and precocious.
