3312

Little Chef's -6yr- Aprons, Hats & Cookies

February 2002

Shelly in Danville, CA  USA

Special Mention

Cookie Baking Party 

My daughter, who was turning 6, chose a "Cookie Baking Party" for her January birthday party.  

I started out by visiting my local scrapbooking store and picked up some darling cut-outs of children in aprons, pot-holders, rolling pins, a recipe card, etc.  I pasted them on a sheet of paper and wrote the following on the recipe card:  Kelsey is turning 6! Please join us for some cookie baking fun! Date, Time, Place, Etc. 

As the children arrived at the party, they were given a paper chef hat (ordered from www.foodservicedirect.com) with their name written on it (example:  Chef Kelsey) in black marker. 

Then, they went down to the family room where I had children's tables and chairs set up.  Each chair had a natural-colored canvas apron (ordered from www.joann.com)with a child's name written on it (again, Chef Kelsey) draped over it.  I had set out various colored permanent fabric markers (ordered from www.michaels.com) and the children decorated their own aprons.  There were even aprons for myself and my mom who was helping out (Chef Mommy and Chef Grammy!).  The kids looked absolutely adorable in the chef hats and aprons! 

Next came the cookie fun!  We cleared off the markers and gave each child a portion of cookie dough.  We used this great pre-prepared sugar cookie dough called "Get Kookie".  It comes in packages of 4 bright colors (red, blue, green & yellow) and as it cooks, it retains its vibrancy.  It's also egg-free and is the consistency of play-doh so the kids can roll it out, shape it, etc.  Each child was given a piece of every color and we put out assorted rolling pins, cookie cutters, and actual play-doh toys to aid them in making their creations.  As they finished shaping their cookies, we laid them out on cookie sheets labeled with the children's names so we wouldn't mix the cookies up. 

While the children were busy making their cookies, we had pizza delivered.  As the cookies baked, the children enjoyed their pizza, opened gifts and had birthday cake and ice cream.

I made a basic sheet cake, did some simple decorating with bright colored icing, and wrote Happy Birthday Kelsey on it.  I found some darling candles at a cooking store.  They were shaped like cooking objects (a chef hat, an oven mitt & a cookbook). 

When the cookies were ready, we put them into plastic hinged bakery boxes, again labeled with each child's name (example: Chef Kelsey).    

To top off the party, we put on some fun music like Freeze Dance and let the kids dance some of their energy out.  They had a blast just being silly! 

At the conclusion of the party, the children took home their chef hat, apron, cookies, a wooden baking set purchased very inexpensively from Ikea (rolling pin, spoon, spatula & crinkle cutter) and a personalized candy bar that had Kelsey's photo on it and said, "Thank you for celebrating my special day with me!  Love, Kelsey"; (ordered from www.simple-celebrations.com). 

I had taken lots of photos during the party of Kelsey with her guests and we made thank you notes using some of the photos.   

The kids all had a wonderful time and I received many phone calls from parents saying how cute the kids looked in their chef attire and how much the kids enjoyed the party.  Kelsey said this was her best party yet! 

To make things a bit easier and speedier, we layered table coverings on the children's tables.  We put down a layer of butcher paper, a layer of waxed paper over that, and another layer of butcher paper on top.  When the kids decorated their aprons, they did it on the butcher paper.  When it was time to shape their cookies, we peeled off the top layer of butcher paper and they did the cookies on the waxed paper.  For pizza time, we peeled off the layer of waxed paper and underneath that was another layer of butcher paper. 

This system worked very well for our assorted projects/activities!

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