Table etiquette and manners- A mother/daughter Relief Society Activity

First off, this dude is a life saver. Seriously. Gotta give him a shout out. When things weren't running as smoothly as I would have liked, aka the church printer jammed an hour before the activity, this man I call my husband came to my rescue. I need to do better at expecting things to go wrong; and plan for the worst, but I guess I am just too optimistic. : )

The activity was a mother/daughter activity focused on dining etiquette/manners. So, all women were invited, as well as any daughters/grandaughters, ect. ages 8 and older.

First, we had three quick classes that were on: table decorating (*note all of the cute themed centerpieces our speaker brought for examples), how to set a formal table properly, and table etiquette.

Next, we had a relay race. We divided everyone up into two groups. We had three stations set up on both sides of the gym. The girls were the main competitors, while the moms were there to help their daughters in any way possible.

The first station was just 'cause we are girls and usually get dolled up before we have a nice dinner. : ) The daughters had to quickly put on the items on the table. 

I brought a pair of shoes, a skirt, and the sister I work with brought some jewelry. They had to keep all of the attire on until they completed all of the other stations.

The second station was table setting. They had to properly set a formal dining table setting, napkin folding and all. : )

The next and final station was to match dining do's and don'ts.

Once the third station was completed, the mom and daughter team had to hurry back to the beginning and take off the dress-up clothes and leave them on the table for the next mother/daughter team.


We also had two "crafts" for the ladies to participate in if they wanted.

One craft was making a paper origami recipe book (aimed at the younger girls). Some simple kid-friendly recipes were printed off and available to be placed in the recipe book.

The second was really not even a craft. We asked the women to bring an empty picture frame that they would like to use in their kitchen for a dry-erase menu board. We then provided the menu inserts for the frames. Annnnd that was it for that one. : ) You could have them decorate their frames or the menu inserts if you have time. I got the idea off of pinterest, duh! This is the main example I used for our menu boards. Check out my relief society page for more of the ideas I used for this activity...

For refreshments, we had an ice cream bar. The team that won the relay race was the first group to hit up the refreshment table. It was a big hit! I am so bummed I forgot to take a picture of it. I thought it looked pretty cute, if I do say so myself. : )

For the ice cream bar we had:

Vanilla ice cream

Ice cream cones

Chocolate syrup

Caramel syrup

Strawberries

Bananas

Sprinkles

Whipped Cream

Chopped up cookies

Whole cookies

Toffee bits

Chocolate chips

M & Ms

Maraschino cherries

It was a fun night of learning and play! And dessert always makes activities a little better! : )