Activity Days: Mother Daughter Tea Party Etiquette Night

      

       Twice a year we try to do a Mother/Daughter and Daddy/Daughter activity. We had a really fun 50's night back in October so June was prime time for the Mother/Daughter activity. We threw a Tea Party for the girls and their moms (or sisters, aunts, and even dads) and had a Tea Party/Etiquette Night.

       It was something different that let the girls play, eat yummy food, and learn something about becoming a lady since 11 - 16 years old is the time to learn those things! Anyway here's what we did:

Decorations:
       We really wanted to change the Primary Room into a fancy tea party or maybe even travel to Alice in Wonderland for a bit. Outside of the Primary Room door we had this sign posted so that all of the girls knew which room to go to. In our ward, we split the activity day girls into two groups so it was helpful to have this and let everyone know where the combined class was at.

      When the girls walked in we had a Welcome sign hanging from the chalkboard made out of doilies, ribbon, and scrapbook paper. You can't see the letters as easily in this photo, but it was super cute in real life.

      We decorated each table with a colored table cloth, a doily made table runner, and tissue paper flowers. The tissue paper flowers added a TON to the tables and were super easy to make. We found the idea and directions here at Fiskars.com.

Activity:

       When the girls and their moms all arrived, we started our activity by testing everyone's (girls' and moms') knowledge of etiquette. I asked everyone to rearrange the place setting in front of them to match what they thought was an appropriate and technically "etiquette" or "proper" place setting. It was really fun to watch the girls move their cups to the top left of their plates, and fidget with the utensils, etc. Even some of the moms didn't know! 

        After everyone had their place settings scrambled, I showed them a copy of what is considered a "proper"place setting (found on The Hill Family blog) and had them try to match their place settings to the photo below. Make sure to let the girls know that there are different ways of setting a table nicely, but this is considered the "etiquette/proper" way to do it. 

       We talked about why it's important to have etiquette to show others that we love, respect, and are grateful for them. Next I had one of our girls read the below handout to give the girls an idea of how they should act when at the dinner table. After reading about proper etiquette, we divided the girls and their moms into two groups. Group #1 took Manners 1-9 off of the handout and Group #2 took Manners 10-18. Each group had 7-10 minutes to come up with a skit to teach their assigned manners to the other girls. When they were ready, we had them perform their skits for the rest of the class. The girls had so much fun coming up with funny skits!

       When the skits were over, we let the girls know that now that they knew how to eat properly, we were going to have them "practice". (While they came up with their skits, we'd set up one long table and decorated it with all of the food.) The girls practiced their etiquette and being polite while they gathered their food and ate their snacks. It was a super fun activity!

For food ideas, check out below: 

Food:

We ended up having a ton of food to eat too. Even though we didn't turn this into a "dinner", the girls still ate a lot and this would be a really fun activity to have around dinner time. 

• Cucumber Sandwiches - I absolutely LOVE this recipe I found from Kitchen Joy blog. It's super easy and super delicious!
• Fruit Kabobs - great dish to prepare ahead of time and bring
• Cookies of all sorts!
• Sparkling Lemonade
• Vegetable dishes are nice to have too. 

What's your favorite food to eat at a Tea Party?