Ice cream cone party hats, candy bowling, a cupcake decorating bar and painted cookies with a sugar sheet portrait of the birthday child — a pastel candy party built on two edible activities.
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This is the sweetest party in every sense, and the one my daughter still talks about. The trick is that two of the stations are also the food, so you are cooking half as much as you think.
The cookie painting station is the quiet magic. Children sit down with a paintbrush and a plain cookie and go completely silent for twenty minutes, and then they wrap their painting up and take it home.
Hang oversized paper lollipops made from card and paper straws along the wall, line the table with glass jars of wrapped candy, string pastel balloon garlands over the doorway and lay a pastel striped runner down the table.
Give every child an ice cream cone shaped party hat as they arrive, a cone of brown paper with a pastel paper scoop on top and a pom pom cherry.
A candy bar with jars and scoops and little paper bags, marshmallow pops dipped in white chocolate and sprinkles, strawberry and banana skewers, pastel meringues and doughnuts on a stand.
Milkshakes or pink lemonade in glass bottles with striped straws, and a layer cake with sprinkles down the sides.
Set up candy shaped pins, or plastic bottles wrapped in pastel paper and half filled with water, in a triangle at the end of a hallway and let the children bowl with a soft ball.
Keep score on a paper chart taped to the wall. The hallway is the best bowling alley you own.
Fill a jar with jelly beans and let every child write a guess on a slip of paper.
The closest guess wins the jar at the end of the party, which gives you a natural finishing moment when energy is running out.
Undecorated cupcakes, bowls of frosting in 3 colors, and sprinkles, mini marshmallows and chocolate chips in small bowls with spoons.
Each child decorates 2, one to eat now and one to take home in a little box.
This is the showstopper. Before the party, generate a simple black and white coloring page style drawing of the birthday child with an AI image tool and have it printed onto edible sugar sheets at a bakery supply shop. Cut the sheets to the size of your cookies.
To attach the sheet, mix powdered sugar with a few drops of water into a thin glue, brush a little onto the cookie, press the sugar sheet on top and let it sit for a few minutes.
To paint, mix powdered sugar, water and food coloring in small bowls, one color per bowl. Thin enough to flow off the brush but not watery, or it will soak through the sheet and blur the lines. Add water a drop at a time, give each child a clean fine brush and let them paint.
Do a test cookie the night before. That is the only way to know your icing paint is the right thickness, and it takes 5 minutes.
A small pastel treat box with the cupcake they decorated, a painted cookie wrapped in cellophane, a lollipop, a small bag of candy from the candy bar, a candy shaped bubble wand or a sheet of sweet themed stickers, and the ice cream cone hat they wore.
Bake the cookies two days ahead and keep them in a tin, they paint better when they are completely cool and dry. Put an apron or an old t-shirt on every child at the painting station, and set the whole thing on a wipeable tablecloth. Food coloring gets everywhere and it is worth it.