Annual get-together has grown because it’s just their cup of tea
Marlene Hahn’s always ready for annual girls’ day with her granddaughters and great-grandaughters
THEY’VE ZIP-LINED ACROSS THE Elora Gorge, rode a double-decker bus, and dressed up as clowns. One thing’s for sure, this is no ordinary tea party.
Marlene Hahn’s seven granddaughters, and now two great-granddaughters, come together every year for a tea party, one that’s about a whole lot more than tea.
The Elmira resident starting hosting the event 13 years ago to create memories for her granddaughters. She also has two grandsons, but thought since there were so many girls it would be nice to get them all together for a girls’ day once a year.
“I just have so many granddaughters and a lot of times they were here. I’d be doing crafts with them or I’d bake with them and I just thought we’re going to do a special day that they all can be together,” Hahn said.
Now, three of them are in university and the youngest great-granddaughter is just old enough to start participating.
Last Saturday was the annual tea party, and the girls were treated to an hour of fun at Airborne Trampoline in Cambridge, followed by lunch and crafts.
“It was from 11 to 3. Well I think the last one left here probably around 6 o’clock. They just never want to go home. They just have so much fun,” she says with a laugh.
They bring a couple important mementos each year to add to a time capsule, things like sports achievements and drivers licenses. They also always go to the West Montrose covered bridge to take pictures.
“They can’t wait because they never know what I’m doing,” Hahn said. “I send out the invite and they keep asking each other, they’ll ask my husband on the side, ‘Grandpa, what’s Grandma doing this year?’”
She says family time was always important to her mother and she’s made a point of carrying on that tradition. While the granddaughters all live in Waterloo Region, it’s special for them all to get together for a day of surprises.
She recalls one year when they went up to Fisherman’s Cove for a trip on her brother’s pontoon boat.
“I had all these wigs that I had got from the dollar store with purple and blue and gold,” Hahn said. When we were on the boat I made them all put them on. Well I tell you, we’re going down and everybody’s just waving and hooting and saying ‘oh you look so cool.’”
Other years they’ve taken day trips to see llamas, gone on Mennonite buggy rides, and had a spa day. They used to do longer parties when the girls were younger, including an overnight camping trip.
“Each year we just try to do something different.
It started off it was a little bit longer. We’d do the Saturday and they’d stay late and we’d have a campfire and marshmallows and they’d tell scary stories. We had this one piece of wood that whoever was telling the story they had to sit on it and I do still have the log that they sit on,” Hahn said.
All the time spent making crafts and baking together have paid off she says, as each of the girls are crafty. She puts together a goody bag for them every year with things like eye masks and hair wraps. This year she added pajamas and a special surprise.
“Some of the crafts these kids have made are amazing. On Saturday I had gone through some of the old things that they had done years and years ago. I put one of them in their little go home bags. Well they just could not believe that that’s what they had done that many years ago,” Hahn said.
As for how much planning goes into the tea party, she starts looking for things for the goody bags the day after the party. And she already knows what next year’s surprise activity will be. She also asked the girls to write down something they’d like to do and put it in a sealed envelope. She’s going to pick one and add it to next year’s event.
She says last year’s activity, zip-lining, is one of her favourite outings.
“Some of them were like I don’t know if I can do this. And others are going ‘can I take my phone and take some pictures?’ And camping, they totally enjoyed the camping overnight. Just having them all together, they’re just so caring and fun,” Hahn said.
Now onto her second scrapbook full of photos from the tea parties, Hahn plans to keep hosting them for as long as she can.
“It’s an amazing day,” Hahn said. “We have so many laughs.”