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| Invitation |
Upon arrival, each child was given a chef had and letter stickers to add his orher name. (The girl hats were adorned with flowers that had been hot glued on, the boy hats had stars.)
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| Chef Hats |
I also strung together a banner made of aprons that were similar to the invitations.
The kids each got a cloth apron to decorate with fabric markers. I had sewn a strip of ribbon across the top of each white apron, too.
Decor
I painted a giant pizza on a piece of cardboard and wrote "Today's Special" in chalk.
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| Pizza Painting - Today's Special |
Kids were given decorated skewers to make their own rainbow fruit kabobs. I lined up strawberries, canteloupe, pineapple, kiwis, blueberries and grapes.
We passed out pie tins that we labeled with permanent markers to serve as their pizza pans. They added their choice of tomato sauce from a squeezable container or spooned on pesto sauce. Their was a lot of shredded mozzarella cheese and an assortment of toppings. (We kept it simple offering only fresh tomatoes, pepperoni, and olives.) Fortunately, I had a lot of help in the kitchen cooking and cutting the pizzas.
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| Individual Pan Pizzas |
The kids loved eating their own creations.
We set out all the baking ingredients for the kids to make their own jar mixes. I used a nut free version of this recipe http://www.bakerella.com/mix-things-up/ I substituted Rice Krispies cereal for the pecans. The kids loved these and parents later reported back how much fun they had baking them at home.
I also provided cookie samples for everyone to enjoy.
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| Ingredients |
I used wide mouth mason jars and made paper funnels to help ensure everything made it into the jar. We set up an assembly line outside with clear instructions of how many scoops of each ingredient to add. It was helpful to have extra adult oversee this activity.
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| Paper funnels |
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| Assembly Line |
The mason jars were prelabeled with each guest's name the recipe information. The kids could decorate the top of their jars with flowers that matched their chef hats, too.
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| Completed Jar |
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The kids were given cupcakes to frost. I had bags of frosting with numerous pastry decorating tips. We did not have a lot of time for this activity but most of the tips were difficult for the kids to create with. I also had a large assortment of sprinkles for them.
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| Cupcake decorating |
I painted the chef and had lips and mustaches on wooden sticks for the kids to get photographed. (I found free printables online.)
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| Chef Face in Hole |
I had a lot of fun making a cupcake shaped pinata a week before the party. The wrapper is a folded piece of brown paper over the cardboard base. I turned a large bowl upside down and covered it with plastic wrap to apply paper mache to make the cupcake top. I covered a tennis ball in red tissue paper to make the cherry on top. The sprinkles are rolls of paper.
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| Cupcake Pinata |
Instead of filling it with loose candy and toys, I prefer to insert individual goody bags so that all party guests go home with the same amount. I am sure some kids like the rush of scavenging as much as they can, but I've seen too many tearful and disappointed kids after pinata parties. It sometimes feels like kids are rewarded for aggressive behavior. Also, using bags mean I don't have any loose or crushed candy and toy mess to clean up.
