A Baking Party

As my daughter's 7th birthday approached, I asked her "what kind of party do you want?"  She said "a baking party!"  My little girl loves to cook with me, making cookies or dinner it doesn't matter what we're making because she thinks it is fun.  I tried to come up with some things that would be easy to make in a two hour period (with a bunch of kids!) and came up with pretzels.

I found the hats on BuyCostumes.com and printed out the kids names on iron on transfer sheets to personalize them.  I found the directions on how to do this at Passion for Parties blog, where they explain that you need to make a mirror image of the text so that it reads correctly when you iron it on the hat.

I found this great idea to make cupcake wrapper garlands on Hostess blog.  It was easy to do and an inexpensive way to add a pop of color.

We found a wonderful invitation and thank you note selection at the Mommies Ink Etsy shop.  Jen was fantastic to work with and she altered an existing invitation design to include a brighter pink instead of red for my daughter.

I know you will not mind, I deleted the personal information for privacy.  :)

Photo by Stephanie Albanese Photography

We found a great recipe that is similar to Auntie Annes at CDKitchen.com.  The children could choose to put salt or cinnamon and sugar on their finished product.  I found glassine bags at Paper & Parcel on Etsy, so the kids could eat one pretzel, and take another home!

We also decorated cupcakes...there is my sweet girl enjoying the chance to be creative with icing.

Photo by Stephanie Albanese

The children brought their creations home in clear cupcake boxes that I found on Amazon.com.  There is a little plastic insert in the bottom of these boxes, so the cupcake stays in place for it's trip home.

In addition to their rolling pins, and a chocolate bar, the kids placed their creation in these simple bags to bring home.  (No plastic junk to have hanging around the house!)  I found some great gift tags by Meri Meri that are adorned with a touch of glitter.  So sweet!

I really wanted to make cake pops for the party, but found myself running out of time.  As I was shopping for the food for the party, I walked past some donut holes and thought, that might work!  I came home and looked up some directions and came across Cookie with Sugar's website with some great tips.  (Dip the popsicle stick in melted chocolate, then stick it in the donut hole.  Let it cool and then dip all holes in chocolate to coat, this way, the balls stay ON the sticks!)  The kids loved them, and also took some home in their goodie bags.

I found this printable picture on via Pinterest.  (my latest favorite site...more about that later.)

BlessedNestblog.com created this sweet free printable, which you can print too.  

Children grow out of these home made birthday parties so quickly, cherish them while they last!