This was a very big event for us. We are down to 7 moms for our group (one just had a baby) and 22 ladies RSVP'd to say that they would be joining us. I knew we could pull it off, but I wanted it to be really special for the girls too. I probably drove some of the moms crazy with my little details.
We were able to use the money from our cookie sale to provide the food and drink and then I asked all the Little Flower moms to bring a dessert. Each mom and daughter hosted a table which was a wonderful way for the girls to meet some of the ladies from the parish. It also allowed the ladies to learn more about our group. The girls were able to show the ladies our display of the virtues that they had worked on.
We were so fortunate that the parish's dishes are quite pretty. They went well with our china. I will certainly be on the look out for more china this summer at garage sales. We were also able to use the table clothes and napkins from the parish. We had just enough!!! To continue with the beauty, we had
Angels and Saints At Ephesus playing in the background for our music. Perfect for a church tea.
At one of the meetings, the girls made cute little flower pots that we used as little favors. I made up a prayer card with the St. Therese prayer on it to clip on each of them. There was a little clothes pin inside each flower to hold the card. All the ladies seemed to love them.
I also got crafty and made little place cards with my Silhouette which made seating everyone quite easy.
We started the evening with a quick history of Little Flowers and what our group is all about and then after a prayer, we had dinner. There was chicken salad sandwiches, ham and cheese, and peanut butter and jelly. There was also a pasta salad and garden salad and some beautiful little cucumber bites. We also had a fruit tray, cheese tray, and a veggie tray. I would say we went a little overboard with the food. We probably would have needed about half of the food, but better to have too much than not enough.
We had a beverage station with the group's favorite punch, plenty of different teas to choose from, iced tea and water. There were also fresh lemon wedges and mint for the ladies' tea. I had my teenage son work as a server. It helped the girls keep their dresses clean as he did the pouring of the punch. He was also a great help clearing tables and bringing out desserts. He even looked the part in his black pants, white shirt and bow tie.
After dinner, the girls put on a modesty fashion show for the ladies. They modeled their dressy or church outfit and then got to change into a play outfit. At the end of it, they all came out together with their Little Flower aprons and sang 'O Little Flower of Jesus' for the ladies. It was so cute. When the girls came out, the desserts caught their attention and they totally forgot what they were supposed to do. They were oohing and ahhhhing at the table. We all got a good laugh out of it.
Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the beautiful desserts. All of them looked so delicious!! Once again, we went overboard with the desserts. We could have probably cut the amount in half with this also.
The whole tea lasted about 2 hours. The girls stayed for a while to help us with some of the clean up and then most of the dads came and picked them up. It only took a little over an hour to clean everything up which really didn't seem long at all. Everyone pitched in which really helped.
It was so great visiting with the ladies and also spending time with our daughters. I know this is going to be a tradition at our church for a long time to come. Our girls are going to grow up feeling they are very much a part of the church. When they attend activities, they are going to know the people around them. What a good feeling!!
