A Look Back at the Platinum Jubilee

We’ve been celebrating Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee for about four months now (and we’ve yet to do the one last thing on our list…plant a tree for the Jubilee!)…let’s take a look back at the fun we’ve had, starting with a special tea party on the date of her accession to the throne in February:

I found a fun craft that we did then, too:

The big events were just this past weekend. We went to a street party at The London Tea Room in St. Louis:

And I made a special, historic dinner to celebrate the historic event…coronation chicken:

For dessert, I made the lemon Swiss roll and amaretti trifle that was the winning entry in the Platinum Pudding Competition:

In some ways, although this event was more historic than 2012’s Diamond Jubilee, it felt more low-key. This was, of course, in part due to Her Majesty’s mobility issues causing her to miss many of the events…they just weren’t the same without her. And the absence of the Duke of Edinburgh was also keenly felt. But it was still a special celebration, with many touching and memorable moments (my favorites were the Paddington sketch, Prince Charles’ touching speech, the well-planned service at St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Cambridge children’s antics at the events, Mike Tindall wearing wife Zara’s hats, and Her Majesty’s balcony appearance following the pageant), and something I will always remember!

A Birthday Tea

Yesterday, we had a birthday tea party. Whose birthday was the cause for the celebration? Why, the Queen’s, of course! Her official birthday, marked by Trooping the Colour, was on Saturday, and we decided to make a long weekend of it, and keep the party going for tea!

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The them for the event was purple (the color of royalty), and crowns (obvious). I also threw in a little bit of green for an accent color, because it just looked so nice. For decorations on the table, we had purple Hershey’s kisses, candles, and purple carnations in a pretty English gin bottle that I’ve been saving for a few years to use as a vase. The tea of choice was Darjeeling, partly because it’s one of my favorite teas, and partly because it comes in a purple box!

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In addition to the tea, we had chocolate chip scones, sugar cookies, open-faced grape jelly sandwiches, and grape jello, all in the shape of crowns.

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We also had coronation chicken finger sandwiches, cucumber sandwiches and some nice reddish/purplish grapes.

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It all made for a very fun birthday celebration!