10241

Little Chef's Party -3yr- Tossing The Mix

January 2005

Kim in Framingham, MA USA

Special Mention

Little Chef’s Party - 5 and 3 yr olds 

For my son (turning 3) and my daughter's (turning 5) birthday party, I wanted a party that wasn't character theme, and could involve children of both ages and their parents. I was able to book our church hall for the function.  We would have about 25 kids.  Siblings were encouraged to attend - since we had the space for it.

Invitations -  I stamped on wooden spoons and spatulas purchased from Walgreens for 2/1.00.  The handle of one side of the spoon said Your Invited and in the "spoon" section, I added the date, time, place, & rsvp.  On the other side I stamped a birthday cake and wrote the name of my child or both if the invited guest knew them both.  Ribbon was tied to them to decorate.   They were mailed in bubble envelopes (on sale 3/1.00) and the postage was about .80.  We received rave reviews from both the parents and the kids for the uniqueness of this idea!

CRAFTS - When the guest arrived at the party, they were greeted by three long tables.  Awaiting them were markers on the table and REAL paper chef hats (bought on eBay for 12.99 for 12).  Each child was to draw their placemat and decorate their chef hat (eliminating the wait time for other children to show up).

GAME As the children started to file in I started a game.  Relay Oven Mitt Game. Pairing them up into two teams, two sets of oven mitts were passed out, one set to each team.  They put the mitts on and had to walk like a crab to their waiting teammate.  The teammate helped take off the gloves and put them on to continue the race.  This was harder for the younger set.  They tended to crawl.  It became less of a race and more of a chance for each child to get a turn.  I then had them do a little game of Freeze Dance.  Were you turn the music on loud, they dance, you turn the music off and they FREEZE!  This was a great warm up on a cold winter's day!

FOOD & CRAFT After this game, we headed back to the table.  I had made aprons for each of them to wear for this next "craft". They were met with four bowls throughout the long table, containing brownie mix and each place setting had a plastic cup of water.  They were told they were going to make their own cupcakes for the party.  Each taking a turn, they added the water to the mix and got a chance to stir.  (I was tossing this mix, so it didn't matter how much water or how much stirring got done.  I had wanted them to think they were actually making the cupcakes.  The cupcakes were made ahead of time and stored out of site).

While the cupcakes "cooked" onto another GAME I passed out plastic spoons and ping pong balls and told them to try to not drop their EGG as they walked around.  If they did they had to start over.  The kids preferred to just walk around with the "egg" which was great.  They were able to share when they dropped their "egg" so everyone got a turn.  I also had a two bowls on the table; one of marshmallows and a spoon with blindfold nearby, the other empty.  The object of this game was to put on the blind fold and scoop as many marshmallows from the filled bowl into the empty bowl.

CAKE! I called them back to the table (collecting the "eggs"). This time they were met with cans of frosting and decorations.  They put their aprons back on while we passed out the cupcakes.  The cupcakes were served in a Dixie animal character bowl to collect any droppings.  My daughter had wanted to make sure that everyone got a candle to blow out and my intention was to do this with the cupcakes.  As soon as the cupcakes arrived, the kids added the frosting and ate them!  Plan B  We took out the Hoodsie ice cream and added the candle to them.  I let the parents know ahead of time that we were bringing out LIT ice cream cups and to have the parents be VERY hands on and attentive.  As the ice cream cups were brought out lit, I began to sing happy birthday.  By the time all the ice cream cups had been passed it was time to blow out the candles!  We had a few in our group with allergies; I let those parents know ahead of time to bring a cupcake and ice cream so their child did not feel left out.  I paid close attention to ingredients in the frosting so all could participate.

And MORE GAMES We cleaned up and played a few more running games while we waited for some parents to return and kids to start leaving.  We played - What time is it Mr. Fox? And Red Light Green Light.

GOODIE BAGS - I had shopped at Target during their 90% off sale and got a ton of candy and cool LED lighted pens.  In the girls bag they also got a Disney Princess lip gloss.  They ended up going home with their decorated chef hat, the apron and the goodie bag.

My kids had a wonderful time and a great birthday!

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