Afternoon Tea Time

[anmom]

(Please note I am speaking of the drinking tea, not "TeA"

 

 

I have this long standing dream of having afternoon tea on the back deck while reading the classics with my kids. I would love to serve something special that my kids will remember and get out our fancy tea set along with a special dessert of finger foods. I know that planning this weekly is out of the question, but I could possibly swing it once a month. I was on Pinterest this morning trying to get ideas (I'm addicted), and I thought I would ask here. Do any of you do something similar? How does it work at your house? 

[73349]

We've done poetry teas this month, and plan to do them again in April. I agree that it would be a lot to do it all the time! Here's a checklist I printed and laminated so we would be able to set it up efficiently.

 

As far as how it works, I either read aloud or played an audiobook while we ate and drank. Typically when he's had as much dessert as allowed, DS is ready to move on, so don't worry if teatime is only 15 minutes, especially if any of your kids are young. But we have enjoyed it, and DS called it "relaxing." :)

[anmom]

We've done poetry teas this month, and plan to do them again in April. I agree that it would be a lot to do it all the time! Here's a checklist I printed and laminated so we would be able to set it up efficiently.

 

As far as how it works, I either read aloud or played an audiobook while we ate and drank. Typically when he's had as much dessert as allowed, DS is ready to move on, so don't worry if teatime is only 15 minutes, especially if any of your kids are young. But we have enjoyed it, and DS called it "relaxing." :)

 

 

LOVE the checklist! What kind of things do you serve? Maybe I'm thinking too much into this. I guess I would just like it to be something different than the "normal". 

[anmom]

We've done poetry teas this month, and plan to do them again in April. I agree that it would be a lot to do it all the time! Here's a checklist I printed and laminated so we would be able to set it up efficiently.

 

As far as how it works, I either read aloud or played an audiobook while we ate and drank. Typically when he's had as much dessert as allowed, DS is ready to move on, so don't worry if teatime is only 15 minutes, especially if any of your kids are young. But we have enjoyed it, and DS called it "relaxing." :)

 

 

LOVE the checklist! What kind of things do you serve? Maybe I'm thinking too much into this. I guess I would just like it to be something different than the "normal". 

[Artichoke]

We originally started tea time as a fun, special to deal with the afternoon snack issue. I'd serve a pot of tea with scones or muffins. Occassionally I'll get the box of mixed gourmet cookies at Aldi's and make some dainty sandwiches out of whatever we have on hand,

[Kerileanne99]

I make easy, cheater petit fours because my dd is all about fancy and pretty.

I take a simple sponge cake and slice it. Sometimes I do jam in between the two layers or just use icing. I usually make a quick icing, but you can also use a can of premade.

Warm up the icing in microwave so that is is spoon able and runs. Spoon over the squares of sliced sponge cake and as the icing hardens I use wax paper to make it smooth and cubed. You can do a decoration on the top with a different color or candy, whatever. Very cute:)

[TriciaT]

We do poetry tea time once a week, and my kids think it is so special. Sometimes I put a lot of effort in and bake special things, but sometimes we just have dates and nuts- they love it both ways!

[73349]

This recipe makes awesome muffins. Bake 18 minutes for mini, more like 25 for regular.

 

We made chocolate chip bar cookies a different day. Next week we'll make brownies. DS likes learning to make food, so the baking is fun for him and something we don't do all the time. Another time, though, we might buy the cinnamon rolls at Whole Foods.

 

We use our best dishes and napkins, too. I give DS chamomile tea with a little sugar, and I drink Irish Breakfast.

[anmom]

Those food items sound so wonderful, then reading them I realized why I'm having such a hard time figuring out something "special". One of my 5 has gluten and dairy allergies, which makes most all of it not work :(

[Mavy]

It is much harder when you have dietary needs. One of my six is gluten free, so our weekly tea is usually ice cream or Popsicles. Every now and then I buy a gluten free mix(brownies or cookies) or make Rice Krispies treats. Mine are young enough having any treat to eat during school time is special.

[Reverie]

Those food items sound so wonderful, then reading them I realized why I'm having such a hard time figuring out something "special". One of my 5 has gluten and dairy allergies, which makes most all of it not work :(

If your child has an allergy-friendly treat she enjoys, maybe present it in a different way? My daughter likes snack/meal bars cut into bite-size pieces arranged on a tray, foods cut into shapes with cookie cutters, pretty arrangements of fruit, etc. She likes the idea of tea time so much that food is not really the focus. 

 

Maybe focus on the beverages, perhaps by sampling different fruit teas?

 

Since you are a fellow Pinterest addict, here's a link to my poetry teatime board:

 

https://www.pinterest.com/knottedflowers/little-ones-poetry-tea-time-tea-parties/

[Rosie_0801]

Those food items sound so wonderful, then reading them I realized why I'm having such a hard time figuring out something "special". One of my 5 has gluten and dairy allergies, which makes most all of it not work :(

 

Look up raw truffle recipes. :)

[73349]

My DS finds fruit salad pretty impressive.

[justme824]

We do weekly tea times her. Love them. When we started we went out and each bought a special mug/teacup, small fancy plate, & a fancy tablecloth that is used for just our weekly tea time. That is the most special piece to the whole thing. I try and bake each week with my 4-year-old. We bake enough to freeze our treats so on the weeks we don't feel up to baking, or time isn't on our side, we can choose something from the freezer.

 

But really, the special mug/teacup, plate, and tablecloth is what takes it up a notch for us. I can server broccoli and water and they'd be thrilled :)

[Kerileanne99]

Those food items sound so wonderful, then reading them I realized why I'm having such a hard time figuring out something "special". One of my 5 has gluten and dairy allergies, which makes most all of it not work :(

Making any of their regular treats 'fancy' might work. For example, I make rice crispy treats with vegan marshmallows. Nothing fancy there normally...so for tea time I used miniature cookie cutters to cut them into shape and then sprinkled a tiny amount of our candy sprinkles on top.

Even veggies get special treatment with a garnish kit.

I found these plastic toothpicks with colored beads that look very fancy, but you could DIY them by hot gluing pretty beads or similar to the end and making mini fruit skewers or putting them into tiny sandwiches cut into shapes. Same foods, just with creative flair:)