Chef Xander's Cooking Birthday Party

A few years ago Cucina Bambini opened up near our house in Willow Glen.  It is a hands-on cooking school for kids. We'd driven by, and we've always been curious. And to our pleasant surprise it also does birthday parties. Picture 14 kids making their own pizzas, and decorating their cupcakes in a kitchen that you don't have to clean-up afterward... Awesome.

Now, last year's Aloha Scooby Doo Mystery Birthday Party was fantastic. It also set the bar for kid's birthday parties in our neighborhood, and  caused a sizable decrease in the number of home-hosted birthday parties this year. It was fun, but it was also a lot of work. Who can keep up?  Certainly not us. And truthfully, this year we wanted the party to be easier, shorter and elsewhere.

Cue Cucina Bambini - two hours of educational cooking fun. It was also a perfect party for Xander who loves crafts and creative endeavors. He is my shadow every Sunday, helping to cook our weekly pancake (or waffle) brunch.

In preparation for the cooking party the boys and I made chef's hats (purchased a box of paper Chef's hats) for all of the kids attending. I created a "pizza restaurant" like typeface in PowerPoint, printed out each child's name in the typeface, and bought 8,000 stars to decorate the hats. You'd think that I would still have a lot of stars leftover, but our neighbor (who also attended the party) helped decorate and he created an elaborate red piranha with stars on his hat... but that is another story. I was also able to buy The Everything Kids Cookbook on Amazon as party favors for under $5, and because of a special that week it was buy three get the fourth one free.

So, I was set-up on the party favor front and Cucina Bambini handled the rest. Our party started at 11 am. The kids washed their hands and put on aprons before they started to make dough from scratch. They got to measure the flour, water, oil, salt ... They made the sauce from scratch and Xander even got to operate the pan and spatula and cook the sauce. Then the kids rolled the dough, and put toppings on their pizza.

While the pizzas cooked in the oven, the kids decorated their cupcakes with frosting and candy. By the time they were finished decorating the pizzas were ready. I was amazed at how well behaved fourteen kids at a long restaurant table were ... but when they are invested in the meal, they are less likely to whine and climb under the table.

Then we sang the birthday song, and they got to eat their cupcakes. Xander loved it, and I think most of the kids did too. Now, what should we do for Caleb's sixth birthday? I'm thinking a Sharks Super Soaker party at home ...

Xander's Aloha Scooby Doo Mystery Birthday Party

It was April and we were brainstorming on Xander's June birthday party.  It might sound a little type-A to be thinking about the middle of June in April, but anything to keep our minds off the protracted rainy season.

I wanted to have a BBQ, rent a bouncy house, and have a fairly laid back affair. Knowing that we suck at parties, Jonathan suggested that I put some thought into having activities for the kids. And so the Aloha Scooby Doo Mystery Party was born.

In planning the party I wasn't alone. A quick Internet search and I found oodles of ideas for kids parties, some quite elaborate, some quite doable. Effective kids parties seemed to follow the same plan. Kids arrive and there is some form of craft, and some form a free play... everyone eats. The host has three to five formalized activities planned after food, but before cake and possibly a pinata, then goody bags and good-byes. Easy peasy. I just needed to decide what activities to plan for...

The T-Shirt Decorating Dilemma

I decided to go retro on the craft. I found Scooby Doo iron decals online and created 24 Scooby Doo t-shirts. The idea was to fill water guns with RIT dye and have the kids decorate their t-shirts. At the last minute better judgement prevailed, and I switched to squirt bottles. Also after reading the warnings on the RIT dye, we opted to have one kid at a time decorate a shirt wearing an art smock, sunglasses and rubber gloves. This worked out great, nothing got colored but the t-shirt (and our fence). My parents ran the craft table, and the kids loved it.

The Mystery
What is a Scooby Doo party without a mystery? One thing we knew for sure, something needs to be stolen by a phantom. Online people went two directions, either presents or the cake. We opted for the cake. When we picked up the cake at Safeway we asked for a second cake box. I created a note from the Tiki Phantom which we put in the box. When Jonathan brought out the cake to sing the birthday song, the kids discovered that it had been stolen. Oh my!

The note asked them to find Velma's glasses, and the second clue. The kids were really into it. They ran through the backyard, and our house looking for the glasses. Once the glasses were found, the clue directed them to their first game.

The first game was the leaky cup relay -- since the Scooby Doo gang always works as a team. When we finished the game, and picked up the buckets to determine a winning team we found the second clue, directing them to break off into pairs for a water balloon toss. This is because the Scooby Doo gang always breaks off into pairs.  I hid the next clue in one of the water balloons. There was a nerve racking moment when we couldn't find the clue, and then my strategy to keep the clue dry failed ... so I had to pull the wet piece of paper apart to read the clue.

That clue directed the kids to a game of Zombie tag. I'm undecided whether this was a great idea, or a bad idea. But for Zombie tag our neighbor donned a zombie mask. The rules of Zombie tag are if the zombie tags you, you become a zombie and tag the other kids, until there is one kid left standing. We had no winners and no losers, all of the kids either hid, jumped into their parents arms, or stopped playing. The zombie was apparently really scary. The only kid that was brave enough to taunt the zombie was Xander, who thought it was awesome!

We ended up cutting the tag game short, and moved to the last clue, which was delivered in person by the Tiki phantom. The clue directed them to set a trap for the Tiki Phantom who loves cake, but also loves cake and fruit. We put out a plate of fruit and the kids hid, while the Tike Phantom came outside to get the fruit. Xander unmasked him, and Jonathan said the famous line, "And I would have gotten away with it too if not for you meddling kids."

Parting the Party
The activities took about an hour. Once the cake was found, we sang the Birthday song, and everyone ate cake, then the kids pulled the strings on the Scooby Doo pinata. Like clock work, the party which started at 2 pm, ended by 5 pm. 

Having a plan kept our party from falling flat. The kids had an excellent time, the t-shirts were a hit, and I still got my BBQ with a bouncy house. Now what should I do for Caleb's 5th birthday in September? I think the theme will be Caleb's Super-Soaker Shark Attack Party. Hmmm.... water balloon wars and water gun tag anyone?