American Girl class: Felicity#2 week 1

Yesterday we had our first day of Felicity in our American Girl class! 

I surprised the girls by dressing up in my colonial fancy dress, complete with "petticoat", a "shift", and stockings. My dress also had a cape that tied around my neck. I wore my mob cap and straw hat on my head, and white gloves. It was fun to see their faces and their reactions, (i.e. "Wow!" and "You look great!" and "I love your dress!" I received many other compliments from parents and kids around the co-op too.  

So when the girls came into class, we discussed my outfit and what type of clothing was worn in the 1770's. This is a page which I read from with more information about dressing in colonial times. (I printed the pages!) I didn't get a picture of my outfit yesterday, but it is similar to the picture from 2 1/2 years ago, which you can see here.

 After we discussed Meet Felicity, book one in the series, we began our craft. (I had originally planned to make straw hats and mob caps, but the hats I ordered didn't arrive until four hours after class began! So we will make those next week!) I was unsure how long this craft would take. We had made "Tea Towel" aprons a few years ago and I think they took much longer last time! I did buy thinner tea towels this time, and I think that made the craft easier.

 Each girl got one tea towel, made a pocket in the top by folding over the top of the towel and hand-sewed the edge down. Several of the girls had done hand-sewing at home, and that helped a lot! After they finished sewing with their needle and thread, they each received a 1 1/4 yard of 7/8" wide ribbon. Last time I think I gave them 2 yards, but that was too much. The length was perfect for most of the girls to wrap around their waist and tie!

Here are two girls modeling their aprons (below is my daughter!)...

 For snack we had queen cakes. You can find the recipe here. I found the original recipe in Felicity's Craft Book. One of the moms had a hard time finding currants as called for, so she substituted golden raisins. Also, the recipe called for rose water, and she substituted orange essential oil. They were delicious, and even were fancy with powdered sugar on top. Instead of the usual drink of water, we had hot raspberry tea, and the mom brought sugar cubes! The girls all loved it!

 Eating snack-- you can see a queen cake on the table...

 Another cutie shpwing off her apron, with big sister looking on...

The 2:00 class working on their aprons...

 And some more cuties modeling the aprons!

 I also passed out the geography pages for Felicity, but we didn't have much time to get to them. You can find the U.S. map here (to color the state of Virginia), and the Virginia page here.

It was a fun class and I am looking forward to wearing a different dress and discussing Felicity more next week!

Acts 19:11-12

God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out. 

Mark 5:26-28

^... and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse— after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak. For she thought, “If I just touch His garments, I will get well.”