Girl Scout Mother Daughter Tea. HELP!

[cminmd]

I have never arranged this type of event before, anyone have any suggestions?
My daughter's troop needs to have a fundraiser/ social activity and they want to have a tea party. Our troop holds its meetings at our church and gets free meeting space. As a thank you to the church we try to do a church wide activity to show our appreciation and make the troop visible to potential members.
So far this is what the troop leader and I have decided. We charge ten dollars per pair and the party lasts two hours. We serve tea, cookies, and food the troop moms make and donate. I want to have some type of craft to do at the party. I was thinking a foam frame or frig/ dry erase memo board from Oriental Trading company. Also the scouts would make up "flower Pens" at a prior meeting to decorate the tables and for the moms to take home. I would get disposable table cloths from costco. Mostly we will use the church coffee maker to make the hot water and I will bring in about 10 tea pots to put on each table. I have a ton of teas to choose from. I think brewing tea in the pot with bags is easiest so we wont worry about the mess of wet loose tea. Any suggestions on activities or how to make this fun?

[Sarah428]

Where I work we offer programs for Girl Scouts. The hottest one we offer is a Manners class, maybe you could do a manners segment since your holding a tea party. The moms really appreciate it and it is possible to make it fun!

[Kathy B]

Another idea would be to have a polaroid available to take Mother-Daughter pics for the foam frames. Or if no polaroid, use a regular camera, and have each pair address an envelope to have the picture mailed to them. (OR have a date or two that they will be displayed for pick-up at the church).

A manners QUIZ might be a fun ice breaker with each table having a sheet of manners trivia to answer together.

I'll keep thinking......

[hollysmom]

They could decorate mugs and then drink from them...

SSM

[blazedog]

There is actually a little mini chain of tea parlors where girls can have their birthday parties.

As I recall one of the activities is getting dressed up in fancy clothing and then being photographed. I don't know if this is doable.

Maybe you could adapt it and have the girls made hats from supplies - ribbons, silk flowers, beads etc.

[cminmd]

I forgot to put that I have a digital camera and will be taking a picture of each mom and daughter and printing them up on the portable printer that I have. That is why we were thinking of a picture frame craft. Any ideas on how to serve food? Should we have a little plate per table or a buffet? I have several tea pots that I will bring. Should I bring only herbal and decaf tea or a selection and let parents decide?
We are doing it at the church because it is free, but maybe I should go to one of those tea places ahead of time to get ideas. What kind of manners activities do you have the girls do? I'm just worried that the moms will be bored. The manners trivia sounds very fun! That might be a nice activity at the tables.
We do have a few girls that play instruments so they might perform. Also we were thinking of having girls recite mother related poems or stories.
Please keep the good ideas coming!!!!!!!!!

[hollysmom]

At the last 'tea' party that I hosted (Holly's 6th birthday), I bought tea cups from a Chinese store and filled them with lemonade with a little Coke for color. We served tea biscuits and birthday cake. Not sure of the age of the children, but they might not like tea at all. I'm sure that you can find the manners activities by looking on the Internet. Birthday party idea sites often have good information, too.

SSM

[Kathy B]

We actually had a tea party with our troop when the girls were around 6 years old or so (not a Mother-Daughter, just the girls). We did something similar to what Blazedog mentioned in that several of the parents brought an assortment of dress-up clothes. We had a few capes and skirts, but a lot of hats, scarves, jewelry, gloves, purses, and even some shoes. We sorted them into three or four piles, and we let the girls choose one thing from each pile to wear. They had a ball, and it was SO CUTE to see them asking each other to pass the fruit while they wore their feather boas and lace gloves!!!

I think most moms will understand that the activities will have to be geared towards their daughters, and I wouldn't worry too much about them being bored. On the other hand, maybe an hour and a half would give you time for dress-up, pics, frame-decorating, eating and a trivia game, and keep it from being too long.

One other thing that is always popular is DOOR PRIZES. You could probably get some things donated from local businesses.

[hollysmom]

Moms won't be bored - just a chance to talk amongst themselves while the girls play -- what a rare opportunity!

SSM

[cminmd]

I'm trying to map out logistics- did you have food at each table or buffet?
Did the dress up get covered with food?
Was it a nightmare getting the dressups returned to the right person?
I was thinking of maybe bringing in dressup stuff for mom and daughter to get fancy for their picture. The lemonade option might be a good idea. I'm not sure how many tea drinkers their will be. Most of the girls are junior scouts so that give a range of mostly 8-11 yo. Did anyone have problems with hot water and little kids? I was thinking that most of the pouring would be done by moms.

[blazedog]

I would assume most people have clothing that they don't want back which would be suitable for dressing up -- you could combine it with a charity drive and just donate the stuff after or let the girls go home in it.

Traditionally, it is an honor to pour at a lady's tea -- definitely delegate some mothers to do the honors.

I doubt whether most young girls actually want to drink hot tea -- but of course that is their decision. However, whatever beverage you serve to them should be served in tea cups.

You might be surprised at how seriously girls in that age group rise to the occasion -- especially if they perceive it to be a "grown up" dress up affair. The more archaic the clothing, the more fun probably -- white gloves, boas, fancy hats, over the top jewelry.

It might be fun to get somebody to do a short lecture on the etiquette of tea -- and have that woman dress up in very formal tea lady clothing.

[Kathy B]

I'm trying to map out logistics- did you have food at each table or buffet?

We had one long table for all the girls to sit at, and the leaders acted as "servers". (Remember ours was not Mother- Daughter, just the girls). Once the food was served, however, we set the platters on the table and the girls passed them to each other for seconds.

Did the dress up get covered with food?

I don't recall ANY spills! We served weak tea with a choice of sugar cubes or some other kind of sugar (Turbinado?) We also had cheese cubes, fruit kabobs on fancy picks and crackers. We may have had cookies or something, but I don't remember.

Was it a nightmare getting the dressups returned to the right person?

Not really. Three of us brought everything in (we all had costume boxes of some sort at home) and we knew what was ours.

Did anyone have problems with hot water and little kids?

No. But if you are worried, you could have someone drop an ice cube in each cup of tea for the girls to cool it.