Recipes for a Whirlwind Day & Kids Birthday Parties

Oh to be six years old and have umpteen birthday parties - one for friends (that included trampolines!), several with family, some at school. We had our turn on Sunday and as the photo below reflects - it was a whirlwind of fun that left little time for setting up cool shots - although I do like this one, even if it is nothing but blur - it kind of reflects the pace of it all.

The Princess blowing out her candles

So naturally none of the pictures really came out well, but I thought I'd share the menu (which was also the fun part of the party) in case you're looking for a fun and easy idea for a kids party.

The Theme: Playing "Restaurant"

Activity #1 - "Baking" the cake (I use the term loosely, because I bought chocolate frosted chocolate cupcakes. Now this is not my usual practice, but I pulled a muscle in my back last week. And how out of shape am I that just 5 minutes of shoveling snow could do that? I guess I'll just have to WATCH Olympics rather than actually try any of the sports, but I digress)…

Ingredients:
Prepared cupcakes – make your own or buy them (at least 1 for every kid with a few extras for the "oops" factor)
Frosting – make this beforehand (you can buy some ready made instead) K loves chocolate, so…..need I say more. But when I used to do this for my kids, I would prepare some vanilla icing as well, divide it into different dishes and add a couple of drops of food coloring to make pink, blue, green & yellow options)
Sprinkles – chocolate and other candy sprinkles to decorate the cake in multiple shaker bottles or little dishes with a spoon for sprinkling.

Directions:
1. Make the “chefs” wash their hands first and then start to create their own magical cakes.
2. Have the table arranged so that all the toppings – icing & sprinkles are reachable
3. Give each chef his/her own cupcake and something to spread the icing on with.
4. Watch, and be amazed!!!

The hardest part will be to keep the chefs from eating their creations before it’s time to light the candles and sing Happy Birthday.

Here’s a photo of my own little princess (she's the one in pink) and her fellow pastry chefs at a party years ago.

Activity #2 - Pizza Chefs – Make your own pizzas
Ingredients:
Small pita breads – (one for each chef plus a couple of extras – just in case)
Pizza sauce (you can make your own or buy some in a can)
Toppings:
Grated Mozzarella cheese
Sliced pepperoni
Sliced mushrooms
Sliced peppers (red, yellow, green)
Anything your kid loves to eat that you can put on a pizza – you can even make fruit pizzas with jam as the base – I wouldn’t add cheese to these

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 450°F/230°C and place enough cookie sheets in the oven to prepare them for “cooking” the pizzas.

2. Place all the toppings on the table, again in easy reach of the “chefs”

3. Give each person their own pita/pizza and let them get creative. You might want to make a few “plain” ones – just sauce & cheese for the chefs that get too creative and then don’t want to eat them.

4. Important: This part is for the grown ups – keep the kids away from the oven. Place the pizzas on the hot baking sheets and let them “cook” until the cheese melts or the fruit pizzas begin to caramelize. That’s less than 5 minutes.

5. Another hard part: trying to figure out which pizza belongs to which chef

This time around, my niece was the only kid, so we added a job and another activity – waitress – oops server – how politically incorrect of me.

So she went off with a variety of ingredients to offer the diners – pesto or tomato base; mushrooms; marinated or raw red peppers; Kalamata olives; grilled chicken; cured chorizo sausage slices; goat cheese; red onions…the list was quite extensive.

Then we got busy making them while the guests sat around and talked. All in all, we had a great time and a delicious meal to boot.

What's your favorite kid party theme?

Related links: Food and Drink Kids Parties