Children's Party

[Anneke]

If you had $200 (net of taxes, profit) to cater a birthday party for 4 adults and 16 kids (mostly boys), what fun and original ideas can you come up with?

I thought of a do-it-yourself pizza thing and a separate, fancier menu for the adults. I need to work on the perceived value issue... Help?

[shroomgirl]

As the mother of three boys I have a ton of ideas....age of birthday boy....what does he enjoy?

[Anneke]

Eight year olds...
They enjoy their comics and video games I suppose... Not too picky, just a bunch of average little guys..

[solanna]

A while back I posted a bunch of fun (an mostly cheap) kids birthday type treats...Lollipop Cookies, Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes, Peek-a-Boo Muffins, Fruit Kabobs.

They are all at this URL with instructions and photos.

Take a look.

[coolJ]

a bunch of 8 year old boys, I think going with the super hero theme would be a good way to go, only thing is I'm not sure if kids still like Superman, Spiderman, or Batman and Robin , is Captain America still cool ? or the invisible man ?. A couple of books you could check would be, "Dad cooks up a party' or the Harrowsmith collection has a couple of books dealing with kids birthdays and recipes for kids.

[shroomgirl]

If they were into Legos....I had a great Pirate party....cake had blue jell ontop with an island and lego pirates and sharks and bamboo trees....goldfish encircled the sides...
Watermelon boat
eye patches/balloon swords/pirate treasure hunt with map...
cool punch
Adults could be fun kabobs and alcoholic punch.

My guys were into Japanese Animation...

It's Fall now there can be cookie decorating, I love to have an extra large sugar cookie, ziplocs with icing and a plate of decorations for each kid....apples on a string...shoot caramel apples and funpizzas...

[W.DeBord]

What are apples on a string?

[Kimmie]

I'm sure it's not what Shroom meant but anyway, it's a scientific experience for children:

Get 2 apples and tie a string to the stem of each apple. Hang the apples by the string so the apples are about 1/2 inch apart. Now blow between the apples. What happens? The air traveling around the curved surface of the round apples creates a low pressure area between the apples. The higher air pressure on the outside of the apples pushes the apples together until they touch.

[shroomgirl]

Nope, tie an apple to a string (one per child)...hang it up and tell the kids to try and bite it using NO HANDS>>> now that I think about it, it was not that great of a party game....alot of apples hitting kids in the face

[panini]

As I think of most of the games we used to play at parties I can't help but to think of the liabilities involved. What happened???

[W.DeBord]

Life has been so depressing lately, I'm embarrassed to say I got a good laugh out of the apples on the strings thing. I have to find a way to pass that onto my step-daughter for her daughters parties. They'll get a good chuckle out of it!

[roon]

A variation of the traditional "apple-on-a-string" is donuts on a string instead. They're a lot easier to bite into, won't bruise you if it hits you in the face, and kids usually think they're a lot yummier!

Warning: don't try this with powdered donuts. The powder gets all over the floor!!

[marmalady]

I think the 'make your own pizza' idea would be neat for both the kids and grown ups! Get everybody interacting, not just the kids on one side of the room, and the g'rups on the other!

And you could do the 'kitty litter cake' for dessert!!! Eight year old boys would think that was a riot!