There is just something extra special about hosting an at-home birthday party for little girls- maybe its the liberal use of pink and flower decorations or the jewelry arts and crafts projects- maybe it's that it causes a Mom to look back and reminisce on her own childhood birthday parties! I'm not sure what it is- but I can tell you that I just love to throw a party for my little girls! Here is one of our favorite kids birthday parties: a cooking party for kids!
Cooking Party Invitations:
I love these rolling pin fill-in-the-blank style party invitations This is an affiliate link: MomOf6 earns a commission if you purchase, at no additional cost to you. that you can pop in the mail!
These thank you notes This is an affiliate link: MomOf6 earns a commission if you purchase, at no additional cost to you. are so cute and are perfect for our party!
Opening Activity for Our Cooking Party for Kids- Creating Personalized Aprons!
When the guests arrived, they were given a canvas chef's apron This is an affiliate link: MomOf6 earns a commission if you purchase, at no additional cost to you. that had been personalized with their name (I did this ahead of time using iron-on letters This is an affiliate link: MomOf6 earns a commission if you purchase, at no additional cost to you. ).
They were asked to select three or four appliques This is an affiliate link: MomOf6 earns a commission if you purchase, at no additional cost to you. that they wanted to add to their apron- we had hearts, flowers, dragonflies, and ladybug appliques to choose from- and once they selected theirs, they brought them over to me at the “ironing station” where I ironed them onto the apron for them.
Then the girls put on their aprons and chatted with each other until all of the aprons were ready.
Cooking Party Activities:
Each guest received a ball of pizza dough and had to pat it or roll it to make their own pie. They added the pizza toppings of their choosing, and then placed a little name-flag (an Avery label attached to a toothpick) on their pizza so that I could match up the pizza to the guest after they were baked.
While the pizzas were baking (and I had so many guests that I had to bake them in two shifts), we decorated mini cupcakes.
I had assembled all of the baker's tools- icing bags This is an affiliate link: MomOf6 earns a commission if you purchase, at no additional cost to you. so the icing could be piped onto the cupcakes, and sprinkles that could be arranged as flowers This is an affiliate link: MomOf6 earns a commission if you purchase, at no additional cost to you. on top of the icing.
But I learned that for most of the girls, using the icing bags to decorate was too much of a challenge, so we ended up squeezing the icing out into bowls and gave them knives to use to spread the icing.
We placed the decorated cupcakes into cupcake boxes with cardboard inserts This is an affiliate link: MomOf6 earns a commission if you purchase, at no additional cost to you. inside that hold the mini cupcakes in place so the girls could transport them home, and each box had a sticker This is an affiliate link: MomOf6 earns a commission if you purchase, at no additional cost to you. on it (to make it look like the box came from a professional bakery)!
A little freeze dancing is always fun!
While the adults were cleaning up the tables, the kids headed outside for some freeze dancing (here is where having three big brothers is a HUGE help at parties!). We then put all of the baked pizzas on plates and matched them up to their baker, and the girls enjoyed lunch on our back deck.
The Cooking Party Birthday Cake:
Here are our birthday cakes- two giant cupcakes made from a cupcake-shaped cake pan This is an affiliate link: MomOf6 earns a commission if you purchase, at no additional cost to you. !
Cooking Party Favors:
The cool thing about this party is that the party favors were built right into the party! Each girl went home with her own personalized canvas apron, and a box of 4 mini cupcakes that she decorated and could share with her family (or not!).
Check out some more awesome Kids Birthday Party Ideas:
- Just Dance Half-Sleepover Party
- Art Birthday Party
- Cupcake Wars Birthday Party
- 10 Awesome Birthday Party Craft Ideas for Tweens!
Check out all of our Kids Birthday Parties here:
How to Throw Your Own Kids Birthday Parties at Home!
Do you think your daughter would love a cooking party for kids like this one?
Nicole says
Just curious if you cooked the crusts prior to the kids adding toppings like the dough recipes says, or did you skip the crust cooking for the party and let them add toppings right away?
Sharon Rowley says
I definitely pre-cooked the crusts as outlined in the recipe!
Barbara says
Lynne, where did you purchase the children’s aprons? I need ones size 6 – 8. thanks,
Sharon says
It’s Sharon…. the original website that I ordered from is no longer around (kidsaprons.com), but I was able to find some recently at Michaels in a 3-pack. They were actually much nicer than the ones I had originally purchased.
Lynne Stark says
Cool! btw, is there a way that one gets notified if a reply is left once they’ve left one, so i don’t have to check back???
Lynne Stark says
Can not tell you how much i’ve enjoyed reading this week’s blogs. Having attending several of your kids’ parties, i can attest that they are truly are special, fun, warm, and entirely kid-friendly. I even have pictures of your famous cakes in several of my photo albums b/c i was so impressed with them! I would have to say watching you be the leader of the Micky Mouse Clubhouse was one of my personal favorites… 🙂
Sharon says
Thanks Lynne! This has been so much fun for me…. sharing all of these parties. And from now on, I will share them as we celebrate them! And I will actually take photos with this blog in mind rather than having to crop all of my existing photos as I did these last two weeks!