A kid's birthday party without the hype

Well, the sugar 'hype' that is! I have written before about how I like my kids to eat as healthy as possible. While I don't mind them having the occasional treat if they are at a party I am not a big fan of parties where the only option is unhealthy, sugary food (and lots of it too!) So, for Esme's birthday I decided to make a big effort to make it as healthy as possible. Here is what we did. Esme's party had a farm theme so everything was organised with this in mind.

Party food

Main dishes

Unfortunately I didn't really get many pictures of the party food (perhaps that's because it disappeared too quickly!) But we had ham and pineapple pizza, BBQ chicken pizza, sausage rolls, wedges, mini quiches, vol au vents, dip with carrot and celery sticks and fairy bread - yum! To drink we had fruit punch and just a couple of soft drinks.


Desserts

Ok, so we did still have some sweet things. You've got to have cake though, right?! This was Esme's pig cake. We also had fruit kebabs (with pineapple, mandarin, banana, strawberries and kiwifruit), gluten-free brownies and rice pudding.


Party games

Pass the parcel

Between each layer I put a sheet of stickers with farm animals on them. In the middle was a packet of small plastic farm animals (amazing what you can find at the cheap shops!)



Pinata

The pinata we made at home before the party using papermache. It was a great activity for the kids to be involved in too. Inside the pinata I put some more small plastic farm animals, some blowers and some party poppers. The kids seemed to enjoy the things inside the pinata, even if it didn't contain lollies!




'Lolly' bags

This was the bit I enjoyed doing the most (the things you get excited about when you have kids!) I didn't want to put any lollies in at all this year so the bags contain sheets of farm colouring pages (free down loadable ones from the web), a pack of crayons, a balloon, bubbles, sesame snaps, sultanas and a couple of homemade bikkies (cut out with farm animal cutters that Esme got for her birthday!)


Ah, so much fun! I can't wait for the next party to come around! Actually, that's Chris' birthday, I'm not so sure he'll appreciate all these efforts ;)