I love to throw birthday parties.  I think my heart will break when my kids get too old for them.

The best kind of party is a homemade party… which means making invitations, decorations and party favors.

One of my favorite’s was a Cooking Party for Lily and Emma’s 5th birthday.  Oh, wow… was it really two years ago?  Well, I loved it so much I wanted to share some of the ideas with you.

First I made the invitations… little aprons, of course.   I printed the text out on white paper using Little Days typefont. ( I love Little Days font.)  I drew a simple apron template, centered it over the printed text and cut them out.  I glued the white aprons on red cardstock and cut around each using Fiskars Paper Edger Scissors.  It looked just like ruffled trim.  I glued a piece of ribbon along the top for the apron ties.

I decided the colors of the party would be red and light blue.  And everything would be polka dots.

Party favors are always tricky for me.  I don’t like cheap disposable toys and I try not to give lots of candy.  But, I am also trying to “Make it Do”, which means I can’t spend a lot of money either.

The answer was to roll up my sleeves and make some aprons.  I bought fabric on sale and designed a simple little apron pattern.  I enlisted my mom to help me sew.  She has taught me how to squeeze blood out of a turnip… and we were able to make 8 aprons out of very little fabric.

For another party favor, I sent a note with the invitation asking for the child’s favorite recipe.  I copied all the recipes and made them into little recipe books.  It was called “Lily and Emma Among Friends: Our Favorite Recipes.”  The recipes were named things like “Grace Loves to Make Saturday Morning Biscuits with her Daddy” or “Eliza Prefers Homemade Mac and Cheese” and “Madeleine Loves Grandma Clark’s Famous Dinner Rolls (especially the dough)”  My girls have loved trying the great recipes from their friends.

For the activities, I made little pizza rounds for each girl and let them create their own mini pizzas.  Because it was for little girls, I cheated and used Rhodes frozen rolls.  I just rolled them out thin, pricked the dough with a fork, then pre-baked the rounds for two minutes on a pizza stone before the party.  I set out all sorts of toppings for the girls to get creative.   They loved making them.  Some girls made plain cheese pizzas and a few girls made mini mountains out of the toppings!

While the pizzas were cooking, the girls made their own fruit kabobs.

After eating their lunch, the girls got to decorate large cupcakes, which they took home with them in little white bakery boxes labeled with polka dot paper and their name (in the Little Days font of course.)

Since they were taking home their cupcakes as a party favor, we needed a cake!  My creative sister-in-law Marcie Jane gave me the idea of using Necco’s candies to make the polka dots.  I made a two layer cake, frosted with blue frosting and pressed the Necco’s into place.  It doesn’t get much easier or sweeter than that.

In the two birthdays since that cooking party, my girls have asked for the cooking theme again twice.  I think it was a big hit.  With a little work, you can make a birthday memory that is wonderful… without spending a lot of money.

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