Little Chefs Sleepover - Bagel Pizzas

This is a cooking party that I held for my younger cousins. I got some of my ideas from this site. It was a sleepover held on a Friday night.

The invitations were typed on my computer and printed on red paper. I put food themed stickers on the invitations.

When the kids arrived, the first thing we did was decorate plain white aprons with fabric paints. Then the kids all wanted to swim in our pool, so we did that to allow the aprons some time to dry. To keep with the food theme, I drew on water balloons with markers to make them look like food. For example, I drew dots on a red water balloon so that it resembled a strawberry. The kids had fun playing in the water with their pretend food".

By this time the aprons were pretty much dried so we took the kids into the kitchen for our pizza activity. I got the pizza idea from this site. The kids were given bagels on which they spread pizza sauce and added toppings provided to them such as cheese ham pepperoni pineapple etc. While the pizzas were being cooked in the oven we let the kids help whip up some instant chocolate pudding. Each child had a job such as measuring the milk pouring the milk or stirring. They ate the pudding with their pizza.

Then we made another craft. They all decorated ceramic plates with special pens and we put them in the oven to permanently set the ink. You can find things like this at your local craft store just follow the directions on the package for baking. These made a nice party keepsake for the kids to take home.

While the plates were baking and cooling we played a game called "What's Missin' in the Kitchen?". For this game I placed many cooking tools on a tv tray and showed it to the children. Then we picked one kid to be it. It left the room and the rest of us removed one item from the tray. When it came back he/she had to guess which item had been removed. Replace the item and play again until all children have had a turn to be it.

Then we made homemade potato chips. I just got the recipe from a cookbook at my house and these can actually be healthier than store bought ones because YOU are the one who decides how much salt goes in it. Like with the pudding each child had a specific job to do in this recipe so we made our chips and took them outside and laid some blankets on the lawn.

We hooked our dvd player up to a projector and used extension cords to bring it outside so that the movie could be projected onto the back side of our garage. You’d also hang a white sheet from a clothes line it works just as well. The movie that we played was Ratatouille and the kids ate their chips while watching it. We came back inside and played Cooking Mama on the Wii. Then it was time for bed.

The next morning a big breakfast of French toast eggs and bacon was served. We made that part before the kids got up but of course we wanted to have something for them to cook as well so we also made fruit parfaits with our breakfast. The kids layered sliced fruit and yogurt in clear plastic cups. Very easy and very healthy! They loved being able to see the layers through the clear cups!

Then we did a little science experiment. "Acids and Bases: Chemistry in the Kitchen". We used cabbage juice as the indicator then the kids could add things such as lemon juice to it. If it turns dark red it is an acid blue is a base. We did this because the kids all seem to enjoy science and we wanted to have something educational for them to do.

Then we made chef hats as a craft. The kids stapled poster board into a tube that would fit the top of their heads. We put tissue paper in the top of them and the kids decorated them with food themed stickers.

Then we played a relay race game. Several weeks before the party I had been saving empty food boxes. I stuck all of the boxes on a table and split the children into two even teams. On go one member of a team would run to the table and pick up a food item and bring it back to their teams pile. The catch was that together as a team they had to make a balanced meal, meaning that if one player gets a fruit the next one might want to try for a vegetable and so on. Depending on how many kids you have the teams may have to go down the line twice to ensure that they have something from every food group. We put sweets in too but none of the kids picked it they stuck with the healthy stuff! When a team thinks that their meal is balanced they yell "Dinner time" and you have to check to make sure it's balanced. If it's not play resumes. If it is they win! Give the members of the winning team a kitchen tool we did wooden spoons.

Then we went outside and had an egg toss. We had the kids wear bathing suits for this one so we could spray them off with the hose before coming back inside. If bathing suits are not an option for you plastic rain ponchos should also do the trick. Even though it’s messy the children loved it and it was one of the most popular activities of the day.

By this time the kids were hungry again so off to lunch we went. For lunch each child was given two slices of bread of their choice (options were white wheat and rye). They could add any meat cheese and condiment they wished as long as they promised to actually eat it and not just waste it. They got really creative with this one some kids even tried adding things like grapes! You could even use the toppings to make funny faces or perhaps use cookie cutters to shape the bread. Anything goes!

For desert they decorated cookies. I had already baked the cookies before the party and iced them with white icing. I put them in the fridge so the icing could set up. The kids then used these really nifty food coloring pens that I found they draw like real markers! My only advice is to make sure that the icing is relatively hard they seem to draw better that way.

After eating their cookies the kids followed treasure hunt clues to find their goody bags which consisted of a Kids' Cookbook plus their aprons hats and plates that they had made. Then we gave them some time to swim in the pool. They swam until their parents picked them up.

I hope that this gave you some good ideas that you can use for your next cooking party. Have fun!"