Formal dresses, pinkies extended, arms ready to hug: young attendees at Miss Spider's tea party were primed and ready.
Just over 300 children and their families attended one of two An Afternoon with Miss Spider events to meet the friendly arachnid from popular picture books by David Kirk.
A partnership of the Great Lakes Children's Museum, Horizon Books, the Tamarack Lodge and Kalkaska CARES pulled together the reading-friendly gatherings, which also included a visit by Miss Spider to Horizon Books on Saturday.
As for the spider angle, the cute and lovable — if oversized in this venue — Miss Spider triggered no phobic reactions: children rushed up as soon as they spotted the character.
"I like this, it's really fun,” said Lisa Palmer, who attended the first tea party with daughter, Chloe, 4. "She's really excited about tea time and dressing up.”
Sisters Abigail, 5 and Amelia, 3, Goodrich are veterans of tea parties, thanks to their grandma, Judy Goodrich. The girls practiced etiquette rules and donned their best frocks in anticipation of Miss Spider's tea, which also included crafts and story time.
"We have tea parties at home with full service and dress up with white gloves and purses,” said Goodrich, whose home parties include all the trimmings. "[Tea parties] go back to the 1800s, 1900s — they can only say nice things and they have to use their manners.”
Nineteen volunteers, 17 of them youth, helped out at the tea party, including Girl Scouts, Brownies and members of Central High School's National Honor Society.
Best friends Harold Kranick and Nathen Julien, both eighth graders at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Middle School, swapped shifts inside the Miss Spider costume. Whoever was on the outside stuck close to his buddy, helping him navigate through the throng of children and keep balanced when bending down for hugs.
"I love it, I love to see kids smile — it brightens my day,” said Kranick.
Neither were bothered by the sweltering costume, limited visibility or constant requests for attention. Instead their various stints as mascots over the years have sparked a greater ambition: to serve together as Suntan (Julien) and Sunburn (Kranick) for the Traverse City Beach Bums.
"Not everybody can do it, some would be self conscious,” said Julien of being a mascot. "You've got to be good with kids. It makes me feel like I've accomplished something great.”
The Great Lakes Children's Museum borrowed the costume from Kalkaska CARES, which had it thanks to a reading promotion grant. Fittingly, CARES stands for Children Acquiring Reading Essential Skills.
Mary Manner, director of education for the museum, praised the cooperative partnership fostered throughout the five-county Intermediate School District in part because of the grant. She has conducted an in-service training in Kalkaska and noted that educators in the other counties are using the museum as an educational resource.
"By far the greatest population is in Grand Traverse County and people tend to just think about Traverse City,” she noted. "But there's lots of families living in Kalkaska, Benzie, Antrim and Leelanau counties and we're really happy to be partnering with families in these other counties.”
For more information about the Great Lakes Children's Museum, call 932-4526 or see their web site at www.greatlakeskids.org.