You are Invited to Afternoon Tea!

 

This year’s Homeschool Mother & Daughter Tea will be held on Saturday, April 29^th, 1:00-3:00 p.m. at St. Raymond of Peñafort parish hall, Springfield VA. Please RSVP by April 15^th at the Sign Up Genius link on the sidebar.

 

We ask each family to bring their own teapot and tea cups for themselves (Extra pots will be provided need be). In addition, we hope you will volunteer your time and or contribute towards our savory treats or flowers. You will find more information in the Helping Hands Sign Uplink on the sidebar

 

This event is for daughters who have made First Holy Communion (or expect to receive the sacrament this year) to college age, and their moms (or aunts, Godmothers, or grandmas!) A payment of $10 per family is requested for this event. Please pay via FAITH DIRECT (link on the sidebar).

 

Our speaker for this year's Mother & Daughter Tea is Mrs. Sue Reilly: Wife, Mother, and Nurse.  And a great friend.

Sue has been a nurse for 28 years. She finds great joy and fulfillment in being a comfort to women as they begin their own journeys of motherhood.  As she often says, she wants to have repeat customers. This joy is only exceeded in her own journey as wife and mother.  She and Chris married 27 years ago and have raised and continue to raise their twelve children with faith, hope, and love...and a huge dose of laughter.  Their home is always open to friends and family who are welcomed as though they were always known.  Sue has been a blessing in many lives grounded in her mantra of "Trust in God".

 

We hope you can join us for an enjoyable afternoon of discussing what it means to be a faithful wife and mother and always fighting the good fight during these uncertain times.

Making Memories with our Daughters

There was plenty of setting up to do! But many hands helped make work light (and quickly done!)

Bonus: a photo booth (with props!), a table for creating and coloring cards for mom and friends (and plenty of stickers too!), and art books to inspire us.

Then the teapots were lined up, hot water poured in to prepare it for everyone's favorite teas, and scones set on tables for munching (or dainty nibbling?) as we listen to our guest speaker.

They were once little girls, who sipped tea with pinkies raised, and enjoyed the make-believe (and very real) conversations while sitting primly with friends and their moms.  Wonderful memories were made in these annual events, that we carry with us long after we leave behind our homeschooling years.

Clink!

 

Meet Our Speaker

When you visit the Yuma Center website, you will find the smiling faces of young ladies and women of all ages (and babies too!)--listening to speakers, helping at a soup kitchen, attending a retreat.  Yuma Center's programs help women in their personal and professional development, while providing spiritual growth opportunities from which to draw motivation in work and life.

Our speaker for this year's Mother & Daughter Tea is the executive director of Yuma Center, Sharon Hefferan.

Before coming to Yuma Center, Sharon worked as the Executive Director of Metro Achievement Center, an educational program serving at-risk girls in Chicago.  She majored in Economics and Spanish at Georgetown University, and earned her MBA from Iona College in New York.  She currently serves as a director in the boards of Midtown Educational Foundation in Chicago, and Youth Leadership Foundation in Washington, DC.

Sharon will speak to faith formation and virtue especially in relation to how these prepare our girls for being happy and serving society.  Join us for tea, and together with your daughters, be inspired!

We’re back!

Join us for our Annual Homeschool Mother & Daughter Tea.  Follow this link to sign up, and visit our Helping Hands page to tell us what you're baking!  In just a few weeks, we will be sipping tea and enjoying this time with our daughters, and with each other.

How a "Small Party Edition" Tea Time Looks Like

We picked our spots (and hurriedly cleaned them!) and boiled water for our tea pots.  Some of us found flowers for the table, while some covered up the school desk...I mean, dining table with a pretty table cloth.

Some of us had guests, and some of us, after overcoming the technical difficulties, were able to reach out and virtually clink teacups with our friends.

Sr. Eneyda gave us a beautiful speech, reminding us of God's response to Job, giving us hope through the difficulties of the lockdowns.  "Trust! God gives us the grace that we need for this journey."

It was a small party, and made us look forward to the day when we can clink, and hear the tea cups touch.  Until then, we managed beautifully, like the intrepid homeschoolers that we are!

 

Clink!

 

Photo by Kelly Neil on Unsplash

2:30 p.m.  WELCOME

2:45 p.m.  Time for a group photo! Gather 'round your camera and smile :-)

2:55 p.m.  Divine Mercy Chaplet

3:15 p.m.  Talk by Sr. Eneyda (while we all sip tea and munch on scones)

3:40 p.m.  A reading of Scroll #1 The Tea Cup

3:45 p.m.  Closing prayer (then we Clink! and raise our teacups for another group photo before we say goodbye--then you can enjoy the sweet and savory delights of your tea party!)

Please note that there will be a Zoom administrator, who will assist you with technical questions.  Use the chat feature in Zoom to ask for help.

How a Homeschooler Prepares for a Tea Party

Everything is a lesson plan.  Or a life plan.  Either way, we approach our days as opportunities to teach and learn.  So we have a tea party coming up? That can mean a brand-new rabbit trail to learn about Camellia sinensis and the Japanese tea ceremony and the British tradition of high tea!  

But perhaps you would prefer to go the hospitality route and explore creating tablescapes, decorating party spaces, embroidering tea linens.  Then there's the "etiquette" route--table manners, kind words, beautiful attire.  Because we are homeschoolers, we thrive in these many possibilities!  

We only have a few weeks to our tea party and though we long for that year-long project of teaching hospitality, history, and how herbal tea isn't real tea (it doesn't come from the Camellia sinensis plant), we know that we can still have a fun and elegant time.

You don't really need a pretty tablecloth--

Know that a scented candle will change the ambiance easily--

And really, it doesn't need to be anything floral at all!

Wherever you decide to serve tea on the 10th of April, do join us at three o'clock and we can 'clink' our tea cups virtually and have a great time.