Liberty Tea Party

We learned that the Patriots in the American Colonies showed their disgust with the tax on tea by boycotting tea altogether, and making their own "Liberty Tea"---a generic term for whatever herbal tea they could make with herbs from their own gardens. We love making herbal tea and have several herbs in our garden and in the pantry (raspberry leaf, peppermint, spearmint, fennel, anise, chamomile, etc.), so we made our own Liberty Tea and had a tea party!

We used our finest dishes, of course (the tea set I got from my Nana) and we made a delicious pound cake to go with our tea. As a bonus, the recipe recommended by this site turned out to be the best pound cake I've had (and I've been searching for a good, moist pound cake for a long time)!

We do love tea parties! (And hot chocolate parties.)

This is just a monkey. Drinking tea. With a black eye.

Along with our tea party, we had a discussion on taxation and the "no taxation without representation" slogan. We played a game where one person got to be the "king" and decide what all the taxes (we used mints as money) would be for. 

Seb, as king, started small, but soon was imposing grandiose taxes on everyone wearing socks---all the eleven-year-olds---anyone who licked their lips---all the girls---etc. Soon we had quite a rebellion on our hands. :) Everyone liked it better when we changed the game so that everyone could vote on what things were taxed and where those taxes went.