Yesterday, we told you how to set up your pizza station for the Little Chefs party. We left off with pizza in the oven baking, and now what??? Aaaah!

Open the party kid’s café for business. We’ve got the how to on this adorable activity that will keep them so busy they won’t even be ready to eat the pizza they made when it comes out of the oven.

Little Chef's Pretend Restaurant Activity

You will need:

A play kitchen of some sort. This can be makeshift, using tables with decorated poster board, if you don’t already own one.
Small tables, such as end tables, kiddie tables, or whatever you have.
Squares of fabric… we like red and white checkered… for the tablecloths.
A mini centerpiece for each table. Red flowers in a black vase is darling for this theme. (This is another great place to use your Dessert Skirtz cupcake wrappers in Little Black Dress)
We have a free pretend menu for you to download and print a few times for the “customers”.
We have character name tags, which are also a free download. You can put the cards you print into a clear plastic name badges, or just pin them to the kids' shirts.

Before the party:

Set up the “Café” with a kitchen and tables
Print the free tags for assigning tasks
Print the free pretend menus
Make a sign for the café

At the party:

Set the timer for ten minute “shifts”. Start by assigning tasks to each child and giving them the appropriate nametag. You will have servers, cooks, and customers. After the timer rings at ten minutes, switch nametags and assignments.

You will need to take a break to eat the pizza that they made, of course. After they are done eating, and you finish with presents and cake, this is a great way to keep the children busy up until the time they are picked up.

When someone leaves, just fill in the gaps with adults as customers, or move nametags and assignments as necessary.

Take lots of pictures! Terribly cute.

Today, we will show you how to create a pizza making center as an activity… and lunch… during your party. Having lots of little chefs can be sweet, but oh my. Right? We can tell you how to do this with absolutely no flying flour!

Create a Pizza Making Station

You will need:
A foil pie tin for each child
A ball of pizza dough from your favorite pizza restaurant, divided into smaller balls- one for each guest
Pizza sauce: Put it in a squeeze bottle for less mess
Toppings: cheese, pepperoni, mushrooms, peppers, olives, etc.
A small bowl for each topping
Corn meal
Cooking spray oill

Set up your pizza station in advance of the party.
Toppings can be put into the bowls, covered and refrigerated until the party.
Empty the pizza sauce into the squirt bottle and place it in the fridge, too. The squirt bottle makes putting sauce onto the dough super easy for the children. Then, a spoon can be used to smooth the sauce across the dough.

Reserve a space just for this. A kitchen island or large table is perfect. Just be sure it is large enough for several little chefs to gather ‘round.

Cut the large balls of dough from the pizzeria into smaller balls, one for each child. Coat smaller bowls with cooking spray and place a small dough ball in each. (Baseball size is plenty.)

Label each pie tin with a party guest’s name. (A Sharpie works well.) This makes it easy to tell who’s pizza is who’s when they come out of the oven. It also keeps them straight when you are sending home the leftovers.

Pizza boxes from the pizzeria (many places will just give you a few) can be decorated with scrapbooking paper for sending leftovers home in style. Labeling the boxes “(Birthday child‘s name) Café” is a really sweet detail not to be missed. Write the guest’s name somewhere on the box so you don’t have to open them to know who it belongs to when the party is over.

At the party:
It’s always best practice to lay a few ground rules before pulling out any food at a cooking party. You know… stay away from the hot oven, no propelling food items, etc.

Have everyone wash their hands.

Spray hands and work surface with cooking spray.

Have the children use their fingertips, starting in the center of the dough ball, to shape the dough into a flat circle-ish shape. The dough will be hard to shape if it is overworked, so encourage them to press down with their fingers, instead of pulling at it.

Place a ½ teaspoon or so of cornmeal on the bottom of each pie tin, and spread to cover the bottom.

Have the children place the shaped dough into their pie tin.

Have the children top their pizzas.

An adult should bake them at 450 until they are melty and golden. This doesn’t take long, maybe 5-8 minutes, depending on the thickness of the crusts.

While the pizzas are baking and cooling, be sure to have another activity planned to keep them busy.

Check back here in The Dressing Room tomorrow to get more activity ideas and helpful hints for the perfect “Little Chefs” birthday party.

Aren’t we Party Divas darlings for giving you the answers before you asked? See ya tomorrow.

So, you’ve promised your kiddo a birthday party… What to do?

Start with a party theme. That sounds a little overwhelming, but a party theme can come from anything. Color, a hobby, or a favorite thing, all make a great starting point. This is a fantastic place to gather birthday party ideas and themes. Step outside the box and have some fun with this part. We have used Little Black Dress Dessert Skirtz cupcake wrappers as our inspiration for this children’s birthday party idea.

Choose a color scheme. Usually two or three colors are best. If you need inspiration for your color scheme, Our Dessert Skirtz cupcake wrappers are a great place to start. The colors are carefully coordinated, which means… no extra work for you!

Cupcake wrappers in Little Black Dress by Confetti Couture

We chose a “Little Chefs” birthday party theme in a red, white and black color scheme. Black and white patterns can easily be mixed. Carefully chosen designs make The Little Black Dress Dessert Skirtz cupcake wrappers create the perfect outfit for your cupcakes for this birthday party theme. Use these cupcake wrappers as an inspiration for your entire party. Just sprinkle touches of cherry red throughout the party in the form of napkins, balloons, flowers and dishes.

Red and white flowers are a simple, but elegant touch. Utensils are wrapped in red and white napkins and tied with a pretty ribbon.

Invitations are the first impression. While stationary can be sweet, we love, love, love the idea of a three- dimensional invite! For a “Little Chefs” children’s birthday party, a recipe card with the party details tucked into the fluffy white butter cream icing on a cupcake makes a memorable invitation that will be sure to get an RSVP. Just be sure not to leave your cakes showing. Pair this idea with the Little Black Dress Dessert Skirtz cupcake wrappers. Give an invitation that your guests will remember. No more forgotten RSVP’s!

Decorations make a simple children’s birthday party grand. Stick to your color scheme. Don’t vary the colors…at all! Plates, napkins, flowers, food, platters; keep it all in the same two or three colors. Mixing patterns gives the birthday party décor some spunk. Use the Dessert Skirtz cupcake wrappers as a guide and carry it throughout your party. Geometric designs generally look great with a floral pattern. Larger, bold designs pair well with a smaller, more detailed pattern.

Start with a craft. It’s difficult, if not impossible to get every guest to appear exactly at the scheduled time. To keep the guests entertained when they arrive, have each child decorate a chef’s hat. In advance of the party prepare the chef hats by cutting 4 inch strips of white poster board long enough to wrap around a child’s head. Staple the two short ends together. Attach the edges of white tissue paper to the inside of the poster board headband with tape. Puff it up to look like a chef’s hat, and provide markers and stickers for the children to customize their own hat when they arrive.

Little Chef’s hats are a birthday party craft and birthday party hats- all in one.

Make the food fun. A bouquet of strawberries is super simple, beautiful, and healthful to boot! This is part of the red in our red, black and white color scheme. Here’s how…

Prepare an opaque vase, bowl or pretty pot by cutting an orange or grapefruit in half and placing half of it cut side down in the bottom of your container.
Push a bamboo skewer halfway into each strawberry with the blunt end. Push the pointed end of each skewer into the orange or grapefruit half in the container.
Finish the bouquet with some greenery.

Get ‘em Cooking. Great activities make the party fun. Pick up some ready-to-go pizza dough (unbaked) at your favorite pizzeria. Fill some 9 ounce clear SOLO cups with ingredients to top the pizzas and drop the cups into some Little Black Dress Dessert Skirtz cupcake wrappers. The party kids can make their own personal pizzas. Using cooking spray on little hands and the counter keeps dough from sticking… and doesn’t fly around the kitchen as flour would. Just provide a heap of dough, pizza sauce, and toppings. Give each child a disposable aluminum pie pan. These are perfect to bake the pizzas, and to send home the leftovers. Rolling pins and aprons are fantastic to use during the party and then send home as the favor.  More details and pictures are on this blog post.

The pizzas are in the oven… don’t turn the children loose!
When throwing a children’s birthday party, the key to control the chaos is to keep the kids busy. Very, very busy. This is the perfect time to open the café. Part of the décor could be a café sign with the party kid’s name on it.

Café sign for Little Chef's birthday party

Provide tables, dishes, trays, play food, order tablets, pencils, and a pretend kitchen area if you have one… or a makeshift one if you don’t. Assign a role to each child. Some could be waiters or waitresses, others are cooks, and the rest are customers.

A Waitress at the Little Chefs birthday party

Show them how to run the café, and let them open the restaurant. Not your typical pin the tail game... so much fun! Take tons of pictures, and share them with us.

Don’t forget the pizza in the oven!

The cake is the star of the buffet for a birthday party. Make it fabulous with a tower of cupcakes wearing the Little Black Dress Dessert Skirtz cupcake wrappers. Top each cupcake with a mountain of white frosting and a maraschino cherry to keep with the color scheme.

Looks amazing…amazingly easy!

See this blog post for more details on the Little Chef's Pizza Station

See this blog post for more details on the Little Chef's Party Cafe' Activity

Go, Go Supermom!