Brinley's Baking Academy

A few things you must know before reading on ... this will be a long post with lots of photos. I've had requests for details so I'm doing the best I can ;) If you want any more info than I give just let me know! Also, because I was so "hands on" involved in the party I was NOT the cameraman for the first time in a VERY long time! It was a hard role to give up ... seriously.

After much preparation, Brinley's birthday party arrived. There were a few late nights getting some prep work done so things could be as "organized" as possible when the girls arrived. Brinley got to invite 8 of her friends and ended up with 6 coming because 2 were sick - the joys of having a January birthday!! Ashton and Kendyl couldn't miss out on the fun either so we had 9 girls taking part in all of the festivities ... FUN!! As the girls arrived they were each given a red and pink polka dot apron. I picked these up at Target in the Dollar Spot (the $2.50 section). I also found my goody boxes and rubber scrapers that I used for the invites there ... Target seriously NEVER fails me!!!! Once the aprons were on we had each of the girls make a chef hat. I used posterboard for the bands and tissue paper for the tops. I found the idea on FamilyFun.com but their directions weren't terribly clear so I figured something out on my own. We had tape, glitter glue, regular glue and chunky glitter, foam heart stickers, and sequins on the table for them to decorate away. They all turned out so cute!While the hats were drying we headed into the kitchen to make fruit kabobs to go with our dinner. They had a great time putting grapes, pineapple, apples, and cheese chunks onto the skewers. Of course they nibbled along the way, too. When they were done we put them in the fridge to save until we were ready to eat.Next we had a cooking demonstration from ME! I wanted to teach about reading recipes, measuring, etc. so I walked them through making Chex Muddy Buddies. Each girl had a turn to put a part of the recipe into the bowl and since we doubled the recipe it gave me a great opportunity to work in some math concepts, too ("since the recipe calls for 9 cups of cereal and we are doubling it, how many cups of cereal do we need?")!! Guess it's the 4th grade teacher still inside of me ;) The girls didn't complain one bit and had a fabulous time when they were each given a bag of goodies to shake with powdered sugar.While Steve and I got things cleaned up and ready to make pizzas we had the girls play Cooking Mama Cook-Off on the Wii. It is one of my girls' favorite games and fit the theme of the party perfectly!! They took turns slicing, dicing, mixing, and stirring virtual food. The original idea was to have a "tournament" with a winner at the end but we were already running behind so they just took turns and it worked out great - gave us just enough time to get things prepared to move on.

For dinner we had pizza on the menu, of course!! We set out the toppings, gave each girl a ball of dough (I bought my favorite dough balls and split them in thirds), and let them shape them, sauce them, and top them exactly as they liked. We had them create their pizzas on a piece of parchment paper with their name on it and it ended up being the perfect way to keep track of which pizza belonged to which girl :)While the pizzas were baking we decided we'd better open presents. Brinley got some fun things - HSM pajamas and tote bag, a scrapbook, Littlest Pet Shops, Kitty in my Pocket, a book, lotions, potions, and an organizer.Once the pizzas were ready we served up the goods ... pizza, fruit kabobs, and muddy buddies! The girls loved it all! I think they really loved the idea that they had made their own dinner :)Of course you can't have a party without birthday cake, so I had made and frosted "mini cakes" ahead of time so the girls could decorate them. I baked white cakes - that we colored pink - in a 9x13 pan, let them cool, and then cut them with a circle cookie cutter (about 4"). I froze the cakes to make them easier to frost ... theoretically. They didn't turn out exactly as I had pictured them - next time I will bake the cakes in a sheet cake pan so they won't be so tall when I stack them!! I ended up using 1 1/2 of the mini cakes because otherwise they looked sillier than they ended up. I also ended up with cake crumbs in all of my frosting ... even after freezing them which is supposed to help with that. I decided it was because there were no "sealed" edges on the cake since they were cut out of the middle. If I had had more time (Kendyl had a field trip the morning of the party which cut out about 3 hours of prep time) I would have added one more layer of frosting to cover the speckles. Steve kept reminding me they were for 10 year olds .... We had a counter full of colored frosting, sparkle gels, colored sugars, and sprinkles. Those girls decorated to their hearts' content and had a BALL doing it!! Most of the moms came while they were finishing up and it was fun to see the girls showing off their masterpieces!On the way out the door the girls got their goody boxes. I had made some chocolate covered popcorn, Muddy Buddies, and cake pops ahead of time. I also made sure to bag up their extra pizza for them to take home. I used the same bag topper that I used for Kendyl's goody bags back in September to top the bags of Muddy Buddies ... just used a picture of Brinley! I felt guilty reusing something I had used for another party but had to remind myself that none of these girls were at Kendyl's party. I spent my "creative juices" on recipe books this time!! I had the moms e-mail me their daughter's favorite recipe to include in the book and added a few of Brinley's favorites along with the recipes for Muddy Buddies and chocolate covered popcorn included in their goody boxes. I put a few blank recipe cards at the end so they could add to their books. I started with the cheap photo brag books that hold 36 photos (around $1 each) and designed 3 different 4x6 recipe cards. I was so happy with the way they came out and think the girls really liked them - I know the moms did :)Our 2 hour time frame ended up closer to 3 hours - I warned the moms ahead of time - and we were busy the ENTIRE time! After everyone left I cleaned the kitchen until almost 10 PM and had cracked, bleeding knuckles to show for all of my hard work :( I have gotten great comments come back from the moms who had to listen to little girls talk about the party all weekend! It was a lot of work but was super fun to plan. I might tweak a few things if I ever do something similar (did I REALLY just say that?) but for the most part I am happy with the outcome. Thanks to you if you actually read this far ... hope the details can be of help to someone!! If nothing else at least I will be able to remember sometime in the future ;)