Back-to-School Tea

Friday afternoon we had a few neighbor friends over for an after-school snack–a sort of “teatime” except I didn’t call it that in front of my son and our tea was enjoyed iced rather than hot, perfect for our warm summer afternoon.

This was really easy to throw together! When you have stuff in your stash to work with–tablecloths, paper goods, ribbon, baskets, trays, etc.–a simple table can come together without any prep or purchases. The chambray cloth was a hand-me-down from a friend. I made the red checked topper when my girls were little (I use that thing all the time). The green napkins were leftover in my party box, the ribbon and pencils were on hand, and I always keep apples in the fridge every week. The only things purchased specifically for this occasion were some sunflowers and ingredients for our pencil cookies. Oh, just wait ’til we get to those cookies–so cute!

Since this was a get together with my son’s friends, I put him in charge of few things: helping set the table, peeling the apples for the apple cookies, icing the cookies, drawing something on the chalkboard, cleaning the back windows, and wiping down the guest bathroom.

Ok, now for our after-school snack!

After-School (Iced) Tea

Apple Butterscotch Cookies

Pencil Cookies

Iced Apple Tea

For the apple cookies, I used my favorite old recipe you can find here but added 1/4 cup of butterscotch chips to the browned butter icing recipe! Delicious!

The pencil cookies were an idea I saw on Memory Makin’ Mommas Instagram page a few weeks ago and they are not only the cutest treat ever, they’re also super easy to make!

My son is at that age–between little boy and preteen– where an idea I present can either be really neat or not so cool. I understand this so I showed him a picture of the pencil cookies and simply asked if he’d like to make them. He eagerly agreed so I went with it!

I knew that the girls who were coming enjoy baking and crafting so I decided we’d wait and make the cookies when they got there. I had a little assembly station set up and practiced with a few before they arrived. This worked out so well. All you need is sugar wafers, white chocolate, pink chocolate, and mini chocolate chips.

I went ahead and cut the sugar wafers into a point on one end and had them ready to go. One child dipped the blunt end in pink chocolate for the eraser, the next child dipped the pointed end in white chocolate for the wood pencil tip, and the third child added the mini morsel for the pencil lead. They had these done in no time!

We ate our cookies with what we call apple tea–an old favorite of ours!

Apple Tea

Drop 8 bags lemon zinger tea and 8 bags raspberry zinger tea in a half gallon of boiling water, remove from heat, cover and steep for about 10 minutes. Add 1 cup sugar (I prefer honey granules for this, but they’ve been hard to get lately) and stir until dissolved. Dilute this mixture in a pitcher with a half-gallon of natural apple juice. Chill and serve with ice. This is so tasty and refreshing!

I had some school-themed scrapbook papers and asked my son if there was anything he’d like to use them for (again, testing the idea with an 11-yr old boy). He said, “We could make pencil cups for our school year!” I thought that was a great idea so after our snack the kiddos made pencil cups with the papers, tin cans, ribbon, and double-sided tape and had a bundle of pencils at the table to drop in there.

They did a great job on their pencil cups!

We had such a nice time with our friends. A simple low-key afternoon visiting and munching around the table. There’s something so casual about friends coming over after school, especially when they live just a few doors over. “Hey, y’all want to walk over when you finish school and have a special school snack with us?!”

After our snack, the mamas talked in the den while the kiddos played outside. The kids thought this was their reward for finishing a week of school, but we all know that the mamas always need it just as much!