Kids Birthday Party Food Success

I think I just may have nailed it yesterday at my son’s 6^th birthday party.  My mission was to throw an awesome kids party with (mainly) healthy food, minimal waste and at a low cost.

For the two weeks leading up to his birthday party my son had been sick.  He was so sick that the party had been rescheduled to a week later than originally planned.  The brief my son had given me many weeks earlier, before he was struck down by illness, was – lunch, swimming and ice cream.  This brief needed to be tweaked slightly as we felt after being sick swimming in a public pool may not be the best idea for him.  I also felt that after being so sick that junk food and an over load of sugar was probably also not ideal.

With my son’s approval I came up with this no fuss, low cost, relatively healthy menu for my son and nine of his closest buddies.

Ribbon sandwiches filled with – ham & cheese, vegemite, honey

A fruit platter – watermelon, red grapes, blueberries, plums, orange wedges, strawberries

Mini chocolate & apple muffins and star cookies dipped in white & milk chocolate

Followed by Cadbury Freddo Frog Ice Cream Cake

That was it. 

We had the children start with eating at least two ribbon sandwiches each, then at least two pieces of fruit, then they could have the muffins and cookies and of course later on they had a serve of ice cream cake each.

I will admit I was waiting for a mini riot or some kind of anarchy from 10 six year olds all coming at me with ‘where are the lollies?’ or ‘why aren’t there any party pies?’ or ‘when is the party food coming out?’  I was even prepared from some of them to throw a few grapes at me.  But to my delight there was nothing like that.  All 10 children happily ate their sandwiches and fruit, drank their cups of water and played merrily with water bombs in the backyard.

There was no riot, no fights, no tantrums and no wasted food at the end of the party!  There was also no overspending on my part either.  But best of all, my son said he had the most awesome birthday party ever!