Little Chef's Party -4yr- Crazy Soup Game!

For my daughters 4th birthday celebration we had a "Little Chef" party.

My husband printed the invitation on postcard paper.  The one side had a picture of a bear dressed in an apron and chef hat.  The other side said, Dear Chef (child's name), We are looking for some "Little Chef's to help cook up some fun.  We'll mix and stir and add ingredients until the job is done. Join us for a fun time; it will surely be a treat.  We hope you say that you can come and with friends we'll play and eat.  And then all the important details (For:, when, time, place, rsvp.) 

For decorations we incorporated 2 play kitchens we had, play food, little shopping cart, and all the play pots, pans and utensils.  The kitchens were set up in our porch and as the children arrived they were each given a chef apron that I had made with bright floral fabric that my daughter had picked out.  Each apron was different but they all coordinated.  My daughter wore a big chef hat that matched all the aprons. 

The girls played with the kitchen sets until everyone arrived, then we washed hands and everyone went inside and sat at the real kitchen table. We were making the cupcakes that we'd eat later. There were 6 girls at the party.  I used a box cake mix.  I poured the mix into which ever size measuring cup the girls picked up and went around until each child got two turns to pour the mix into the bowl.  Then I divided the water and oil and the girls got one turn each to put that in the bowl and the recipe called for 3 eggs.  I had separated the eggs beforehand and each child put in either an egg white or the yolk.  Then each child stirred the ingredients 10 times while we counted out loud.  When that was done, I had an adult helper take the ingredients finish stirring it and put the batter into cupcake pans.  

I had the children remain at the table and I took out sliced strawberries, grapes and a plate of marshmallows, I also sliced up banana.  I gave them wood kabob sticks and they made fruit kabobs and had juice.  When they each had eaten the ones they had made then they asked the parents what they would like and made one for their parents. 

After all the food was made we went into the porch.  I had the children sit in a circle with me and I had a bowl.  I told them we were making meatballs.  This was an activity that they had to use their imaginations, they each added a fake ingredient to the bowl and helped me mix it up and roll out the imaginary meatballs.  While we were making the fake meatballs I had 6 brightly colored play rings on my fingers, we put the fake meatballs in the oven (during the next game, I had a helper put meatballs that we made earlier in the week into the play refrigerator.  The recipe I used for the meatballs was from a Kid's concoction book that was promoted by our local PBS station. The ingredients included used coffee grounds, salt, sand, flour and water.  It then gets mixed, my daughter and I rolled them into the shape of meatballs, poked a hole and stuck in a play ring that was wrapped in saran wrap and then smoothed the hole.  They then sat out for 3 days to harden.  This real recipe is used to make stones for a pirate party but I adapted it for a fun time at our chef party.

Then we had a relay race that they performed one at a time.  They all needed to finish the race before the kitchen timer went off.  I made it so the time didn't go off until all the kids completed the race.  Each child had to sit on a little car and scoot it with their feet to get to the store.  When they got to the store they got off the car and took the shopping cart and went to where the one kitchen was set up (that was the store).  They had to fill one small brown paper lunch bag with as ingredients (play food).  When the bag was full they ran home (the other play kitchen) with the paper bag in the shopping cart.  They took a measuring cup and scooped water out of a bowl that was filled with water and put it in the play pot and put it on the stove.  Then they ran back to the start. 

Then the next child started.  All the kids loved this activity and since they were all on the same team they cheered for each other to complete the race.  As the last child finished the race the timer went off. For completing the task each girl got to choose one package of pretend food that I found at the dollar store and put it in a brown paper shopping bag that had their name on it.      

Next I told the girls the meatballs were done and we were going to serve them to the parents.  So we took out the bowl and the imaginary meatballs that the girls made were now real :)  As they walked over to give them to their parents I said "OH NO chefs come here I think there is a problem.  Do you remember the rings I was wearing, they are missing and I think they may have ended up in the meat balls.  Quickly open up the meatballs and see if you can find my rings."  They had a blast ripping the meatballs apart (on a big plastic bag) and they each found a ring and were able to keep it.

Our next activity was called "Crazy Soup.  I quickly put odd items around the room (Mouse cat toy, shoelace, princess shoe, balloon, keys, brush, frog sponge etc.).  All the little chefs were going to help me make some crazy soup.  I had a very large pot and before the party had written movement word on paper and put them in the pot (running, jumping, twirling, marching, rolling, CRAZY, skipping, clapping etc.)  One at a time the girls went to find a strange item to put in our soup. 

For example one child found the keys put it in the pot, stirred it up and with a big spoon scooped up one of the pieces of paper and pretended to taste the soup and then she would say, this tastes like "running soup" or "marching soup" and then all the chefs would run when the music goes on and freeze when the music stopped.  When someone found the "crazy" word they all got to move however they wanted.  There was enough movement words for each child to go at least 2 times and even extra words that one child picked up two words and they had to do them both (march and clap). At the end of this activity each child received 2 twirly lollipops to put in their shopping bags.      

The cupcakes were done and had cooled so now it was time for them to decorate them.  There were different colored icings, sprinkles, m&m's, pull apart licorice as well as other small candies and toppings.  After cupcakes my daughter opened her presents and there was about 15 minutes left for the girls to play.  The favor was all the items that they had in their shopping bag (one package of play food, 2 twirly lollipops, the ring and their apron.