VERO BEACH — For five years Elizabeth Marshall and her daughter, Rachel, have been attending the Vero Beach Mother-Daughter Tea Party at the Community Center, eager to break away from the rest of the family and spend some quality time together.
“We have a blast,” Elizabeth Marshall said as 11-year-old Rachel sipped from her tea. The pair got gussied up especially for the day, something they don’t normally do.
“It’s fun to hang out and just be together,” Rachel said.
Her mom quipped that Rachel thinks she might be getting too old for such events, but not this year.
Tea party-goers Robin and Jasmine Danforth are also regulars to the event, this being their third.
“It’s fun, Robin said while Jasmine, 9, played a game of Tea Party Bingo, hoping to score a stuffed animal. “It’s our tradition.”
Jasmine, between bingo calls, said she was having a good time with her mom. And when asked what was she thought was so special about her mom, she hesitated a moment and then said, “Everything,” and grinned.
“She’ll have those memories when she gets older,” Robin said of attending the Mother-Daughter Tea Party.
Along with sipping on various teas provided by Vero Beach business Tea and Chi, the moms and daughters played various games, worked on crafts and danced.
First-timers Ashley Scent brought her two daughters, 2 ½-year-old Kendyl and Dallis, 5, to have some special time before the family’s Mother’s Day celebration at the park Sunday. Both girls shyly nodded their heads when asked if they liked their Berry Berry iced tea, and again when asked if they were having fun with their mom.
“This is just something fun to do with the girls,” Ashley said of attending the tea party, adding that she found out about it through her friend Erin Mercado, who brought 2-year-old Addison.
“She’s eating everything,” Erin said of Addison, who was too preoccupied with her treats to answer questions about the Mother’s Day event.
Erin said she usually celebrates the big day with three generations at brunch. This year, though, she has to work. So she’ll be celebrating with the other mom nurses at Indian River Medical Center.
For the ninth year, the City of Vero Beach Recreation Department has held its Mother-Daughter Tea Party, bringing out 120 tea drinkers this year.
“It’s just a super great time for moms and kids,” said organizer Angie Holshouser. “This make me smile.”
Helping to put on the event this year were several businesses and the Vero Beach Art Club, which underwrote the cost of the craft projects.
The Recreation Department said the event would not be possible if not for the support of the following businesses: Vero Beach Flash, Once Upon a Tea Party, Soprano’s Subs, The Tot Spot of Vero Beach, VBHS Performing Arts Theatre, Majestic 11, Young’s Market, Vero Chemical Distributors, Chili’s Bar and Grill, Tootsies, Cracker Barrel, George E. Warren Corp., Tea and Chi, Photography by Michael Siegel, Orchid Island Herbals, Paperback Place, Publix, Bob Evans, Vero Beach Art Club, Walmart, and Sonny’s Real Pit BBQ.
