Tea Parties for Children & Hostess Skills

A week ago Serenity (11yo) hosted her first ever event – an Anne of Green Gables tea party. I was amazed to watch her planning skills and creativity blossom with this occasion.

She’s a girl after my own heart. I always type up my plans on computer to help keep me organized.

She was on top of it – everyday reviewing her notes of what needed to be done. The day before and morning of the tea party she was bustling around decorating and getting food ready. A little friend came to stay the night before and was also a wonderful help.

Serenity and her friend, Katelyn, made these fruit kabobs…

so that I could do this…

The girls did a beautiful job decorating using things I had on hand. The only purchase I made, besides the food, was a $2.00 artificial flower bunch (what exactly do you call them anyways?). Serenity had her brother make this Green Gables sign. He used a wood burning tool to make the words.

The tea party was to begin at 2:00 p.m. The girls had everything pretty well ready at 12:30 – decorations completed, table set. It was a bit windy but not a big problem. But then it started raining and where the two tents joined, the water started streaming in getting the tablecloths quite wet. The good thing was the rain settled the wind and it was completely still. Then it quit raining. An answer to Serenity’s prayer.

Then just a while later, I was downstairs when I heard a loud gust of wind. The winds were back with a vengeance. Russell, the boys and Serenity all had to rush out to the tents to keep them from blowing away. They turned the tents upside down and put them next to the house to keep them somewhat sheltered.

All the dishes had to be taken off the tables and brought inside because the wind was so strong it was blowing the glass punch cups off. All of Serenity’s hard work was undone. We all felt so badly for her. But she was praying and so was Wesley.

We didn’t know where we were going to set up. I didn’t want to do it in my dining area/kitchen since I didn’t think it would feel as special, the garage would be too unattractive, the living room was going to become the White Sands Hotel and be used for their dramatic poem readings. So, where? Russell wasn’t ready to give up on the outside. He thought we should just wait awhile – but it was already 1:15 and I wanted to get things ready before the guests arrived.

At 1:45 the Lord answered the prayers that had been going up to Him and the weather cleared up beautifully. They were able to set the tents back up, redo the decorations and set the tables. There was a slight breeze but that was all. Thank you, Lord.

The tea party went smoothly after that (behind the scenes there was some hustling but the girls never saw it that I know of).

For part of the decorations Serenity took several small vases and placed some little blue stones in each one along with artificial flowers. She tied some tulle (netting) around each vase and even put water in each one so it would look more real. These were all her own ideas.

During the party, she got up and talked to everyone about forming a tea party club. She took a vote to see who was interested and of course everyone was quite excited. She then asked how often they would like to meet and who would like to host the next one. My Serenity, so shy usually, but learning to push those “uncomfortable feelings” to the side.

This tea party was a great experience for her. Not only did she have a good time but the skills she was able to implement in hostessing her first ever event was awesome.

Next post I hope to share with you the ideas we had so that you, too, may be inspired to host your own Anne of Green Gables tea party.

Why does Blogger cut off part of the picture? Anyone know? This last picture and several others are cut off on the right.