Birthday parties. Sure to be the death of me! Luckily I've got my littles somewhat convinced that it is reasonable to do a big bash every-other-year... so we can all have plenty of time to recover. That being said, this is a non-party year, and i must admit i'm feeling a titch nostalgic for last year's good times. Amidst the chaos I never posted pics, so here's a much belated accounting of our sweet soirée.
Both my girls absolutely love to bake, so when one decided to have a bakery themed birthday party the other quickly demanded the same thing. (Can't say I was sad about invitation designs and party plans pulling double duty!) For my oldest's 7th birthday, I figured her friends could handle a simple recipe. Upon arrival each girl picked out an apron (to keep!), and together we made "cheesy pretzels" from scratch. Everyone had their own small bowl and measured out ingredients themselves. They loved getting creative with their pretzel shapes. (Tip: put parchment paper on the baking sheets and use a sharpie to write the kids names by their creations.) While our goodies were baking, and I was swapping out pretzel makings with supplies for our next project, we kept the girls occupied with the always fun "donut-on-a-string" game. Rolling the whole mess up in the disposable tablecloth and simply putting out a fresh one made for quick and easy cleanup between activities. For our second project, each girl got 4 pre-baked cupcakes to decorate with a rainbow of icing and candies, as well as a box for carrying their masterpieces home.
Fast forward a couple months, and it was time for party number two. This one for my cutie turning the big 5! With littler hands in attendance we wisely simplified. The party was essentially the same, except instead of making our own pretzels each child received a pizza kit to assemble (love love this product from Papa Murphy's!). I must give a huge thanks to everyone who showed up to this event despite the massive snowstorm, and to my sweet sister-in-law and neighbors who were able to get our pizza's baked since our power decided to go out right before party time!!
Honestly, aside from the aprons, I think everyone's favorite thing was the super easy donut game. I should probably take that as a lesson in the beauty of simplification, ha! But a year later we still get comments from friends and family about how much they love their aprons, so that makes it all worth it.
Looking for a freebie download of a Bake Shoppe Birthday invitation & welcome sign? Check out the next post ;) Looking for more details about the children's aprons? Check out the post after that! Meanwhile, below is a download of the pretzel recipe. These were printed and attached with baker's twine to the cellophane bags used to send their pretzels home. enjoy!