It's a mad, mad, mad, mad tea party!

Yesterday, CC and I hopped down a Grove-bound rabbit hole and ended up at the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, hosted by the Fowler Museum at UCLA as part of the outdoor mall's Tuesday Summer Session.

Kids and their parents gathered around tables set up in the park area of the Grove, while volunteers from the museum provided construction paper, pipe cleaners and crepe ribbons for a hat-making extravaganza.

We opted to riff on the stovepipe, with CC taping, coloring and modeling her "mad" pink and blue creation.

We had barely gotten everything stapled and in place before she made a beeline for the Gap, where she ran upstairs to the kids' area, grabbed some stuffed animals, chairs, plastic plates, forks and spoons and assembled her own pint-sized gathering.

"Whatcha doin', Sweetheart?" I asked.

CC barely acknowledged me, she was so focused on her various tasks. I was stunned by her familiarity with the store. It's as if she lived there in her spare time.

"My tea party," CC finally answered while still wearing her Mad Hatter's hat.

How cute, I thought. And then I wondered: Those monkeys and ducks are taking up a whole lotta room here. Am I even invited to this thing?

***

Next week is the final week of the Grove's Summer Session, the program that has invited L.A. museums (including the Fowler) to stop by and provide some hands-on entertainment for kids. The Grammy Museum will cap off the series by offering live musical entertainment Tues., August 25 from 2-4 p.m.

If you can't wait that long, musician Michelle Branch will be performing a free concert at the Grove tonight at 8 p.m.