Summer Farewell Tea

It seems so hard to believe that summer break is drawing to a close. My kids and I have been trying to get in all the last bits of summer fun with individual groups of our friends and family before school schedules start. We make a point to get together with my niece and sister-in-law, and another mother/daughter duo a few times a year to enjoy artsy teas, outings, and lessons for the purpose of indulging our inner hopeless romantics, haha. Realizing we’d not yet managed to work in a summer activity with them, we quickly pulled together a back-to-school tea.

We all homeschool (except for my oldest daughter who is in college), and both my niece and our friend are beginning their senior years! So a tea time together seemed in order, not only for welcoming a new school year, but also for commencing a final year of homeschooling for these two girls.

I was originally thinking I would arrange the tea table in more of a bare-wood, bohemian, artistic fashion. But then my girls let me know that they’d gotten together with the other girls and all decided to dress up since they don’t get to wear their dresses too much these days. Sweet, right?! So, we went all fancy-schmancy with pretty florals and frills! I scrounged up some of the few summer flowers that are still hanging on in my hot yard to make one last very summery arrangement. Well, hopefully it’s not the very last.

My daughter printed an Old English Tea Blessing for each place setting.

I told the other moms what I’d be serving and asked them to each bring an item of their choosing (with a strong hint of something chocolate making an appearance, ha), and so they brought decadent triple chocolate brownie bites and fresh strawberries with dip! Delightful!

My younger daughter and I made lemon curd tartlets with blueberries and lime curd tartlets with blackberries to enjoy some of our favorite summer fruity flavors before the season changes. (I’ll try to post the recipe soon if you’re interested.)

Our three families (the mother/daughter sets) once took a scone-baking class together and we’ve since enjoyed practicing making scones at home. My oldest daughter has perfected her cinnamon scone and I asked her to make them as a little nod to our beloved fall season on the horizon because we are all seriously craving fall, right!! As she was mixing the dough, I remembered we had some toffee bits in the freezer, so, on a whim, I got them out and threw in a hand full! And now, cinnamon toffee scones served with clotted cream and apple butter is going to be our new fave for autumn!!

The combined efforts of all the mothers and daughters made a beautiful plate!

And, of course, there was tea! I made Watermelon, English Afternoon, and Paris teas, served with cream and sugar.

Tea time fit for a queen!

As a little gift for the girls and mamas (because we mamas are starting school too), there were bags at the door with some school essentials: CHOCOLATES!

I wish I could give you each a bag of chocolates, but, since I can’t, I’ll just leave you with one last image of a summer bouquet!

Lately, I’m hearing many moms lament the loss of “back-to-school” and “first-day-of-school” traditions with their children’s schooling being online (at least for the first several weeks for many). I hope to encourage you that even as homeschoolers, starting back to school holds many fun traditions for our family, and it can for yours as well! Whether it’s a tea party with other friends, a field trip, or a pancake breakfast and staying in pj’s all day, you can still mark the occasion with something special! This week I’ll share our family’s favorite back-to-school traditions, so I hope you’ll join me then!