Ladies Tea 2012

Just to be clear how absolutely behind in blogging I am, today's post is about an event that happened in APRIL. Blah! 

Last fall, I naively pitched the idea of having a ladies tea at our church to benefit LWML missions grants.  And then somehow I was in charge of it! (Doesn't it always happen that way?) So, I found myself a committee of 6 women who agreed to help me organize and pull off a ladies tea.

The catch -- we didn't want to plan the ladies tea that you probably picture when I say "ladies tea".  We wanted something that could be a mother-daughter, grandmother-mother-daughter, friends tea. With an interesting speaker. And a little bit of fancy. 

Our committee first met in November to choose a theme and get started on planning.  We each took responsibility for one aspect of the event. Our jobs were:

* food & hostesses 

* entertainment & program

* advertising & photo booth

* facilities (tables and chairs, manpower to help transform the church into the tea area)

* decorations

* tickets & name tags

We met approximately once a month to check in on progress, get feedback and make decisions.  

We decided to call the tea, "You, Me, the LORD and Tea".

One of our first decisions was to make the children's tickets free and plan an activity for the kids.  We wanted to encourage families from our church and school to attend.  

We had a little discussion about how large the tea might be. It had been a few years since there was a tea at our church, so it was really a guess how people would respond.  Our monthly LWML meetings usually have 20 women, and at one point someone actually said, "If our members come and bring a friend or relative, we'll have 40." We decided to plan for 12 tables and approximately 100 women.  

One cool thing that happened right away was we found out a family from our school had banquet type supplies in storage, so we were able to get the tables, white tablecloths and chairs as a donation. Awesome! 

We decided since we would have 12 tables that we would find 12 hostesses and have each hostess decorate their table to correspond with a month of the year.  Hostesses were not asked to provide food, but were responsible for table settings and decor.  In return, they received their ticket to the tea for free.

Our food and hostesses woman made a small food committee to make finger sandwiches, scones and fruit salad, and our LWML was asked to donate boxes of individual tea bags.  We prepared the hot water in the church kitchen and then had our servers replace the water at the tables when needed.

Our servers? Fancy, dressed up husbands and sons! They all wore white dress shirts and tan pants.  (This was actually one of the things people commented on the most following the event.) 

We advertised the event at both the church and school and tickets sold quickly.  After capping the ticket sales at 100, we actually ended up selling, I think, 106 tickets.  I think we probably could have filled another table to two if we had not limited the seating. 

We had an AWESOME decorations person.  I have a super talented friend who has done event planning before who took over for our first, very lame decorations person (me!).  She came up with amazing decoration ideas that were inexpensive.  There were a couple of decoration "work parties" to get things made, but that was actually pretty fun! 

We set up a photo area so that we could take pictures of ladies in attendance.  We decided that those would be mailed or emailed, whatever the photo subject wanted. And then, the idea grew and we had someone make photobox type props.  (We weren't sure how some of the more seasoned ladies would feel about the photo props but they seemed to have fun with it!) 

Props!

Photo booth backdrop

We were able to line up a great speaker, a Deaconess in training that I met and got to know at a women's retreat last fall.  But we thought we needed an alternate plan for our young lady tea attendees.  We recruited 2 of the cool, gifted-with-young-kids men from church to run the craft activity.  We planned for a craft, and then thought whatever the girls made could be modeled in a short fashion show.  I was looking for a hat or pin or basket or something that could be modeled. And I didn't want glue to be involved. And it needed to work for girls as young as 3. And for a ratio of 2 adults to approximately 20 kids. 

Thank goodness for Pinterest!

Craft room ready for hat making

And I found: this. It worked perfectly and I actually had a lot of the fun crafty stuff already in my kids art tubs.  So, during the speaker, the kids went and made funky hats, and then they modeled them at the end to the Mandisa song, "Good Morning"

Setting up

The event went like this...

Friday afternoon, our committee and a few helpers arrived and worked on decorations. Then we, along with recruited "muscle", stage the sanctuary for the ladies tea.  That was a hard 5 or so hours of work that thankfully was shared by about 15 people. 

Tables and chairs arrived. Decor was being put up. Hostesses showed up when they could to set up their tables. 

The Tea Table (glass bowl for donations went on top)

In addition to the tables, we had a central table with additional tea bags (each table had a bowl with a variety of tea bags), sugar, and a donation box for missions.  We also had a large check in table with programs (with the schedule, some facts about tea I found online, and information about LWML and our speaker) and name tags.  From there, we encouraged people to head to the photo area.  

Check in table

We had about 30 minutes of fellowship time before tea was served.  Ladies also looked around at the different themed tables, and had their picture taken at the photo booth. We had tea and snacks, then heard our speaker while the kids did their crafts.

One of the highlights of the event for everyone was the fashion show.  The kids were so cute and most really got into being fancy and showing off the hats they made.

Overall it was a really fun event.  Our committee members received a lot of feedback. Many said we should have charged more money, while some said we charged too much.  Most ladies commented that they would have liked more fellowship time.  And all agreed that the decorations were very beautiful.  

And now, some more pictures!!!

Tea-ing ladies

More tea-ing ladies with one of the gentleman servers

Tables...

Hat craft!!

Our craft helpers ended up in hats too!

And, some fun photo booth pictures!

Our craft guys (Eric is on the left) and Little Man

Me, my mom and Big Girl

And last, the tea committee!! We were INSANE by the time the tea was over, but it was so fun.

She's Got the Moves Like Gadget

This morning on the way to school, we heard "Moves Like Jagger" by Maroon 5.  The kids are familiar with the part of the chorus with the title, the song is on my IPod workout playlist. So they sang along "I got the moves like Jagger, I got the moves like Jagger..."

And, of course, an argument had to ensue over the proper pronunciation and words to that line of the song. They settled, upon Big Girl's insistence, on:

"I've got the moves like Gadget, I've got the moves like Gadget..."

By this time, the song had been changed on the radio, but they kept up singing the chorus. Their version.

I asked Big Girl, "Who is Gadget?" You know, because if you are going to move like Gadget, you should probably know who/what that is.

Her answer: "I don't know. I think Gadget is probably a cool person with cool moves. Like this." (Insert Big Girl's weird dance style here.)

A Year of Dates: April

Man, the wheels really fell off my blogging wagon last month!! As usual, I blame life.

I didn't blog about it, but we did our April date.  (Want more details about The Year of Dates?)

April 2012


The Date: This was our first date of the year that wasn't date specific. So of course we waited until the last Sunday of April to squeeze it in! We went out for frozen yogurt at a new "local and organic" fro-yo place we had heard a lot about.  Then we headed to the park for a walk and a little friendly game of "Do you know your husband/wife?"

The Envelope: Along with the ever-present "witty note on blue stationary", the envelope contained 2 small booklets...



And it went a little something like this...


Honestly, it was just nice to get to spend a little time with Eric. April was a BUSY month!! We had been hearing great things about the new, "we only serve local, fresh ingredients" frozen yogurt place in town.  I was even prepared for the fact that they don't have any candy or other refined sugary goodness to put on their organic, clean eating fro-yo.

Here's Eric, with the mandatory "Me and my envelope" photo

He has obviously practiced being "thrilled", but this is still a weird picture of him. Sorry, Eric. But, look at the beautiful farmstyle frozen yogurt.  I can't remember what flavors he got, but I was crazy and got chocolate and... vanilla!!  (I have since heard from my fro-yo connoisseur friends that the chocolate is not a favorite.) I had 2 initial reactions to the healthy frozen yogurt. First, it was yogurty. Clearly NOT ice cream. Second, I accidentally chose a spoon of recycled wood or bamboo or something ("accidentally" because I did it on purpose but only because I didn't realize there was some other option that was also environmentally friendly but more like plastic).  The woody stubble feeling on my tongue was not a good chaser to the frozen yogurt. I got used to the yogurt, but not to the spoon. Eric, who had the plastic-ish spoon, made fun of me, but did attempt to use my spoon once too.

Then we headed off to the park.  We went for a walk along the river, which was nice. Quiet and peaceful. Except for that couple being inappropriate together on a blanket in the grass.

Our couples quiz books were pretty cute. 100 questions ranging from the very difficult (what is his mom's phone number? who were 3 of his childhood friends?) to simple (what color is her purse - which was right next to me? who cuts his hair?). We did 25 questions at a time, and then read our answers and mercilessly teased each other when we got one wrong.

Then it got cold, so we moved to the sun about 200 yards away. Guess who also moved there? Yes! Inappropriate blanket couple! So we joked that they probably thought we were following them to watch the show. Only, we really weren't. Not attractive people, the blanket couple. 

I got a bonus shot of the envelope and quiz book!!! 

So, if you know me, you do not even need to ask who "won" the quiz book "game". Because I refuse to lose!!! =)

On our way back to the car, we walked past the marina and saw some super tiny baby geese. Those Mamas were keeping the babies in line! Hello spring!

Next Month: Since I am posting this on the day of our May date (yes, I am cheating and back dating to April so it will be easier for me to find later), I can tell you what we are doing. Dinner out and... Third Day concert!! Hooray!

Hey! It's (the middle of) April!

Welcomed back into the open, waiting arms of my blog.

Things here are as they were. Office still isn't re-done. Backyard still doesn't have raised planter beds. I still intend to do those things, someday.

The last few weeks, and the next few weeks, are going to be BUSY. And, hopefully, fun.

It's nice enough to play outside!! I cleaned out the disgusting backyard toy storage container and threw away the empty/broken/gnawed on junk inside and replaced it with cool, new outside toys for Pippin to chew on.

**Interruption by Little Man, who refuses to wear shoes in the backyyard and now has a splinter in his foot. Cool Snoopy bandaid to the rescue!**

It's also softball season! Normally this means coaching the middle school girls softball team. This year, it means that + me playing on a women's church softball team.  I admit I am a little skeptical about the whole thing. I have never played slow pitch softball, or on a "women's team", and I am having flashbacks to high school PE. But, first practice is Monday and I am looking forward to it. Eric and the kids have never seen me actually play softball, so even though this will be a far cry from my college softball days, it will be something new for all of us!

I have been in a workout funk.  I had a mystery ailment for a few weeks that left me nauseous and really tired (and, no, I am not pregnant), and I lost all exercise momentum. Truly, ALL. EXERCISE. MOMENTUM.  I combined that with truly horrible eating habits, with the lovely result of having pants that are almost too tight! High five!

So, that is my new news. I am more consistent with exercise when I have a goal, and a plan. So I now have a goal and a plan.

The goal: the Tough Rhino Mud Run on June 9th

(I guess that means I have some characteristic in common with a rhinoceros? My aggressive disposition? Scaly skin? Large size? Actually, I am not sure if rhinos have scaly skin. But I sure do!!)

The plan: Jamie Eason's LiveFit Trainer

The first 4 weeks of this 12 week training program actually specifies NO CARDIO. It's all about weight training.  I actually started with the training program first, and then decided the mud run would be a good goal because it is a 5K but also will require strength.

I am finishing up week 1 this weekend. It's pretty rough: "rest days". I do have "before" pictures, but trust me, those will never see the light of day until the "after" shows some serious change. Or unless I become a celebrity, and my dino-computer gets hacked.

Happy spring everybody! I hope you are enjoying beautiful, get your booty outside, weather!

30. Toy & 31. Where You Relax

Today is the end of the March Photo of the Day Challenge. It was fun, but I got a little tired of it by the end, I'm not going to lie. Some of the days were more fun than others. And because of my issues with technology, I spent all my blog-brain power figuring out how to get the pictures on here instead of writing. Have no fear, I have a list of blog ideas to start April fresh tomorrow!

This is not really a toy, but one of my kids' favorite things to do when they play is to draw. This was drawn by Big Girl on March 30th. It's a drawing of recess. When you stand near the school building, first you see girls jumping rope and then behind them soccer, football or baseball and "tag". Eric, who actually knows how to draw (I draw like a 2nd grader), was impressed with the perspective. I just thought, "What a cool looking drawing!" 

This is one of my favorite places to relax, and I caught Eric, Big Girl and Pippin relaxing when I went to take the picture!! I love our comfy chair and couch, and especially the super soft white blanket!! 

March Photo of the Day Challenge

28. Trash & 29. Feet

Once again, technology conspires against me. Suddenly the Instant Upload of my pictures to my computer isn't instantly uploading anymore. I figured out how to force the upload of these two at least.

No joke, yesterday on "trash" day, Little Man got invited to help take out the garbage at the church/school where Eric is the principal. He was SO EXCITED about this, he didn't even notice I was taking his picture. Want to know what was even more awesome? THERE IS A DUMPSTER BEHIND THAT BRICK WALL! (Can you believe it?)

I was going to change my toenail polish, but decided we would take our picture without any preening. Little Man needs some toenail clipping before bed tonight! 

March Photo a Day Challenge

27. Your Name

OK, OK, this is not a "photo". It is a "picture". I didn't want to take a picture of something with my name on it. Like my church nametag? Instead I decided to make a picture with the meanings of my first and middle name. Since my last name means "the rooster", I decided to leave that off. Kind of ruined things.

March Photo of the Day Challenge