Emma's 3rd B-day Weekend 2 of 3: Cooking Party!!!

Emma's cooking party was so much fun. I'm going to try to post these pics in some sort of order so our family can get a sense of what the party was like. Also, we took tons of photos...but I failed to get a group shot of the kiddos, and figured that most of the family would want to mainly see Emma and what she did, so she's in most of these photos. Nine of her friends from Sunday School came to the party and she had a blast having them all over to her house. Let's get the party started, shall we???...

When the kiddos came through the back gate, they were greeted by a girl with a basket of aprons for them.
(I made them from white t-shirts...no sewing necessary. Gotta love that).

Playing in the house.

Us with the birthday girl. Notice Caleb's little tomato face. He gets beet red when he's out in the sun. It wasn't a sunburn, don't worry. :)

I just had to make Caleb his own little apron to wear, and chef hat too. He was the cutest little thing you ever saw. His nickname "Flay" (aka, Bobby Flay) was very fitting today.

The face painting station was the first thing that the kiddos did. Carsen was awesome at painting whatever kind of fruit the kids wanted. She did a great job.

Painting a lemon.

Next up was "Chef Hat Design."
My friend Natasha's husband is a chef and was able to give me these awesome paper chef hats. I put everyone's name on them and the kids went to town decorating their hats. It also served as a party favor too.

Emma worked on her masterpiece...

This was another fun little thing I did...
I took every kiddo's picture behind Mr. Chef. :) We're going to print them out and give to each guest.

Even the adults couldn't resist. Ha ha! Awesome Scott!!!

With our little birthday girl.

Staying cool under the back porch. It was 100 degrees outside.

After making chef hats, it was time for "Cake Decorating 101" class.
Everyone got their own cupcake and were given a muffin tin pan full of toppings: chocolate chips, marshmallows, gummy bears, 4 kinds of sprinkles, etc. They also had their choice of using either chocolate or vanilla frosting. Let the fun (and mess!) begin...

...Emma chose chocolate frosting...

...it was so fun...

and she did a good job. (I'm pretty sure someone stepped in to help her).

She chose a simple topping on her cupcake. 1 marshmallow, 1 chocolate chip, and a few sprinkles. Perfect-o!!!

Getting ready to sing Happy Birthday.
It was too windy to light the candles, so we just improvised. ;)

"Happy Birthday to you!!!"

Kalli and Carsen!
I didn't plan on this, but everyone's aprons served as great bibs during the cooking class, ha!

Bean Bag toss.
This game was a huge hit. I painted a cake on a board, cut out some holes, and voila!!! Instant game. I'm going to paint the pink parts red and use it again for Caleb's bday. What boy doesn't like to throw, right?

See? Very popular game.

Emma showing Julie her prize. (Everyone got a prize).
We gave prizes for things like:
Most colorful chef hat
Best Cake Presentation
Longest Bean Bag throw
Fastest Arm in the Bean Bag toss

Jen and Scott. Jen was kind enough to help me take pics at the party. I was running around like crazy most of the time and was so thankful she had her camera and was able to snap away!!! Thank you Jen!!!

Aunt Alli and Jeremy.

Ahhh, watermelon.
So, Emma would NOT eat her cupcake (not a surprise. I knew that decorating would be the fun part for her). She also didn't want chocolate ice cream. She did love that watermelon though. When this photo was taken, the kiddos were all playing the bean bag toss game, and she just sat over by herself and chowed down happily. Too funny.

More watermelon...

Graham cracker!!!

Julie and I.

The party favors.
The tag says "Thank you for cooking up some fun with us today." inside the grocery bag sacks I had a piece of paper labeled "grocery list" with lines so the kids could fill in their items. Also in there was various fake food, a bag of fruit snacks, fruit chewy candy, eraser, stickers, etc.

The party was a huge success. The kids all had fun, and I had fun planning for it and buying the things I couldn't make. All in all, it was very budget friendly too...the whole party (favors, prizes, hats, aprons, cake, food, drinks, decorations, tablecloths...everything) only cost $25. Gotta love that!

After the party, Emma checked out Aunt Alli's I-Pad. She LOVES it and knows how to work the thing! It's unbelieveable. She had loaded a lot of kids games on there for her, but let me tell you...Emma loves that game 'Angry Birds." She's pretty good too!

Playing hide and go seek.
Where could she be?

Opening the apron I made for her. Priceless look...

She looks adorable in it!

Emma loved the special book that Aunt La La made for her. Thank you for putting so much time and effort into a precious gift. She loves it and wants to look at it all the time, Aunt La La!!!

We gave Emma a girly "bug catcher" that came with these big fake bugs, ladybugs, crickets, etc. Caleb was in heaven, putting them in, out, back in. Back out. You get the idea.

"I love presents!!!"---Emma

We got her "The Jesus Storybook Bible." It's an amazing kids bible. She may be a little young for it still because the stories are a little longer than what she's used to, but it's a great one. The pics are awesome and she is very excited about having a new one to read.