For Anna Kate’s 8th birthday party, she wanted to have her friends over to all bake together! I thought if we were going to do a baking party, it would probably be good to keep the guest list small, but apparently she and I had different ideas! Anna Kate wanted to invite several girls from her class at school, several from our neighborhood, and a couple from church! Of course we were thrilled to have so many of our new friends and neighbors into our home, so a big party it was! First on the agenda was baking the cupcakes. Each little girl got to put an ingredient or two into the bowl, passing it around the table to stir, and then each filling their own cupcake liner in the pan. While the cupcakes were baking, we played a couple of party games: unwrap a ball of wrapped candies in plastic wrap while wearing oven mitts, and pin the wooden spoon in the chef’s hand!

After the cupcakes came out of the oven, it was time to make individual pizzas. I will confess, I did make the dough for this ahead of time, since the yeast would have taken too much time to rise, but the girls were thrilled to get their own ball of dough to roll out and top with whatever they chose!

While the pizzas were baking, we played another game – smell and guess the food in the bag! It was fun to see their faces going from smelling cinnamon to smelling an onion!

After we finished the games and ate our pizzas, it was time to decorate cupcakes! Our kitchen had frosting, powdered sugar, and sprinkles EVERYWHERE, but everyone had a blast! There were several parents who had a hard time getting their daughters to go home at the end of the party because they all just wanted to stay to bake and play some more! Anna Kate promised to have her friends over again soon, and she already has had several more playdates since her party. We are so thankful for new friendships and relationships we are building with families in our community – and so thankful for how God has provided so many new friends to help us celebrate our 8 year old!