Isis’ Impromptu Tea Party

Isis is here.  Isis Lucia is my son Phillip’s four year old daughter and she lives in San Diego with her mom.  I rarely get to see her but last night Phillip brought her over to spend the weekend so we’re pretty excited.  What I wasn’t prepared for was the LLANTO.  Llanto is Spanish for a whole lotta crying.  Isis can cry at the drop of a hat.  Phillip is great with her, but boy can she cry.

This afternoon while we were waiting for Jasmine and Aiden to arrive and hopefully distract Isis from crying she dissolved into tears again.  Phillip was pulling out all the stops to get her to quit but nothing was working.  So Grammy (me), nursing a bad migraine opened my big mouth and said, “Isis want to make cake?”  Instant smile.

I scanned my pantry and couldn’t find what I needed to make cake but I did find one Duncan Hines box of white cake mix left behind by an old roommate.  Bingo.  Isis and I whipped up a boxed cake which I doctored with a little bourbon vanilla and buttermilk.  I rummaged in the fridge and found butter as well as a lemon.  Yay!  Buttercream in the making.  I whipped together butter and confectioners sugar with Isis wide eyed and happy wondering what I was doing.  I explained about buttercream while adding just a bit of buttermilk to make it extra creamy.  I showed her how to zest a lemon and that a little vanilla makes everything taste just a bit better.  She helped me squeeze lemon juice and add it to the buttercream, then tasted it and nodded approvingly. I think Grammy made points today.

The cake was in the oven and the lemon buttercream in the fridge when she started crying again.  My head throbbed.  Phillip looked desperate.  I IM’d Marissa to please hurry over with the cousins and got the reply back OMW.  The tears were still going and I scanned the yard looking, thinking and saw the little pink and white plastic table.  “Isis want to throw a tea party for your cousins?”  Crying stopped, she looks up and asks, “tea party?”  I nod carefully, trying not to cause ripples in the migraine.  “Si!” she chirps.

So now I have a tea party to pull out of um…somewhere.

I take the now done cake out of the oven cut it into petit four type rectangles, top it with a blob of lemon buttercream, decorate with lavender and mint from the garden, set the table quickly, find grape soda and some straws and just before she hits the internal Cry button one more time, Jasmine and Aiden walk in the door with presents for their cousin.  Tea party success!  Everyone enjoyed it and even Ozzy got a slice of cake (well he ate the buttercream right off it, Ozzy is a sucker for butter even when I pollute it with lemon).

It’s been two hours and still no llanto.  She’s too distracted with cousins, jumping on the bed, the trampoline, running with the dog and Jasmine who is the social director of the cousins.  Thank God.  Fingers crossed, hope it lasts.