Mad Hatter Tea Party
by Kim Bronk / ga03162007
 

Kim said that original idea came from the HFPE Yahoo Group, credit unknown.  She followed their outline changing a few things here and there.

Menu:

- Chicken Salad on Croissants.
- Fruit and Veggie Trays
- Sisters from the ward signed up to bring Jell-O, Macaroni and Potato
- Salads
- Drinks were water with lemons and limes
- Dessert was Birthday Cake of course!

Decorations:

We had a big Happy Birthday sign and Mad Hatter hats all around.  We had big Ice Cream cones hung around also. (These were made out of paper). We had big colored dots all around the floor. We also asked sister to sign up to bring a tea set for the table decorations. This was fun to see all the different tea sets the sisters had. We
sprinkled confetti on the tables also with different colored table  cloths so the room was very colorful!

We invited the sisters to come dressed up like they were going to the tea party. It was great! There were so many darling hats! We have a professional photographer in our ward and she brought her camera and was snapping pictures all night!

As the sisters came in we gave them a name tag with a fruit sticker on it. Then they could sit wherever they wanted to. When it was time to start my friend and I came in (we were dressed as Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum) it was hilarious!!!!! We got a lot of laughs. We welcomed the sisters and then sang a song we made up to the tune
of "Fun to Do" (the primary song) We changed the words to : "Eating good fun is fun to do" & "Playing weird games is fun to do" & Making new friends is fun to do".  We had an opening prayer and then the Enrichment Leader (who was dressed as the Mad Hatter) explained how the night would go. When she had her Tiara on everyone was to talk and have as much fun as they wanted but, when she put on the Mad Hatter Hat everyone was to be quiet and listen to the next set of instructions.

GAMES:

Clock Buddies - Each sister was given a paper with clock on it. Where the numbers were on the clock there was a blank space next to it. Each sister was to find a different person for each time and have them sign their name in the space and find out something about that person. During dinner my Enrichment Leader would come up to the micro-phone with a big clock and say, "It's getting late! It's getting late! Hurry find your 10 o'clock buddy!" And the sister's would have to start with the people at there table and then go to a different table to find other signatures. There was 7 to a table and they needed 12 signatures to it helped them to move around. Then we had every one share something about their 11 o'clock buddy. This way the sisters got to know even more about each other! The one person from each table who found out the most interesting thing about someone received a "timely gift" It was a watch from the Dollar Store.

Painting the Fingernails Red - Relay race with teams. One person from each team sits behind a chair and one person from the team paints one nail, nice and neat then tags the next person who comes and paints the next nail etc...until all nails are painted. The
prize was the red fingernail polish to the person who got their nails painted from each team.

Purse Game - Who had the most unusual, cute, small, big etc... purse from your table.
prize: a coloring book and crayons.

Fruit Basket - This is where the name tags with the fruits on it come in to play. Each sister had her own chair. The leader calls out fruits and those sisters with that sticker on their name tags have to find a new chair, meanwhile the leader takes one chair away.
All the sisters still have to stay in the game and sit on other sisters laps. At the end, there is only one person and everyone is trying to sit on her lap. It is quite funny! The prize for this was 2 cans of fruit cocktail so they could make their own fruit salad!

Closing song (to the tune of the primary Hello Song)  -

Goodnight, Goodnight
Goodnight, Goodnight
We're glad you came to play,

Goodnight, Goodnight
Goodnight, Goodnight
We're sad that you can't stay,
To share the fun that's just begun
From finding friends in a very special way,

Goodnight, Goodnight
Goodnight, Goodnight
It's time to say goodnight

Party Favors: Ring Pops.

It was such an enjoyable evening. There was so much laughter and fun. We heard several sisters say this was the most fun they have had since the wards had combined. And we have be combined for almost 2 years! We also found a few people did make new friendships. We had about 63 sisters attend.