Little Chef's Party -7yr- Popcorn Relay

Little girls love to help out in the kitchen, so for my daughter's 7th birthday party we had a "Baking Birthday Party." 

For invitations, I used colorful die cuts from a scrapbook store of a girl baking, rolling pins, and chef's hats to decorate red notecards (also purchased at the scrapbook store).  Before the party, I bought white aprons -- kids' sized -- at Michael's craft store and some fabric markers. 

When the girls arrived at the party, they decorated their aprons with the markers, putting their names on them, along with flowers, rainbows, etc.  Then they put on their aprons and we made pizza.  I had bought pizza kits at Sam's club and they all got to put their toppings on their own big slice. 

The kits come with the crust, sauce packets and seasonings.  (You could also use Boboli crust and Ragu in a jar)  I also bought a big bag of shredded mozzarella cheese, pepperoni slices and pineapple for additional toppings.  To keep track of individual slices, we used a toothpick stuck in the pizza in their initials or unique position so each girl would remember which was which.  The pizzas only take about 10 minutes to bake. 

So while my husband was in the kitchen keeping an eye on the pizzas, we played "pin the candle on the cake", just some clipart that I enlarged, colored and laminated from DJ Inkers. 

We also played a relay race in the back yard. You fill two mixing bowls with popped popcorn and put them about 15 feet away from two lines of girls.  The girls take turns running down to the popcorn with a big mixing spoon, and scooping up the popcorn and putting it in another empty mixing bowl next to it (so four mixing bowls in all, two full, two empty).  When she's done, she runs back hands the spoon to the next girl. 

After the games, my daughter opened presents, and then the girls ate their pizza along with fruit and soda. 

The last thing the girls did before eating cake and ice cream was to decorate their own cakes.  I had made 6" round cakes, one for each girl, ahead of time.  I also had made lots of frosting (or you could buy it).  The girls got their own (paper) bowl of white frosting and got to color it with food coloring any color they wanted. 

We also had lots of different kinds of sprinkles.  They frosted and decorated their cakes on heavy cardboard plates.  I had a separate birthday cake to put my daughter's candles in and eat, so they could take their individual cakes home. 

For the goodie bags, we had recipe cards, mini wire whisks and rubber spatulas and wooden spoons purchased from the dollar store, along with candy and other trinkets, plus their apron and cake.  The girls had a great time. 

It was a little work ahead of time, making the individual cakes and frosting, but turned out to be really easy on the day of the party.