Birthday Pizza Party

We held my daughter's 8th birthday at a small local pizza restaurant at 11 am on a Saturday. We were the only guests because of the time.

The restaurant agreed to set up seating for 12 guests. Soft drinks were given out while we waited for all the kids to arrive. The staff then gave the kids a short tour of the kitchen. Afterwards, the kids returned to their seats, individual pizza boxes were brought out with raw dough and all the fixings to put on top of a pizza. Each child made their own pizza. The pizzas were placed into their boxes, names were written on each box, and the staff took the pizzas into the kitchen to cook.

The staff then talked to the kids about making pizza and brought out dough for the kids to play with. The kids used the raw dough just like playdough.

Once the pizzas were cooked, each child got to eat their masterpiece.

1.5 hours hours well spent and enjoyed by all.

The Invitations:

I had wanted to buy aprons for each child, but I could not find aprons that I liked at a reasonable price, so I bought red, royal blue, and green twill fabric on clearance for 50 cents/yard. 6 yards was used total. I made 12 pizza aprons in a child size. I put a wide, rectangle pocket across each one at waist level. Cutting them all out together, and sewing them at one time was very quick. I then machine embroidered each invited guest's name across the bib of an apron. Each apron was packaged into a very small pizza box. We created and printed up invitations to look like the pizza coupons that are usually attached to a pizza box. The invitation requested that each child wear their apron to the party.

My daughter did a "Pizza Delivery" to each guest's home to deliver the invitation and apron.

We had a 100% attendance rate. Each child came in their apron. At the end of the party, I put hard candy into the front pocket of each apron as the children walked out. They loved the party, and they loved taking home their aprons.

The restaurant charged me the price of a small drink and a child's size pizza; $67.00 was my total restaurant expense. The restaurant had 12 new families into their restaurant, and they were pleased with the exposure.

We served a cake Grandma made that looked like a train. Each kid got a train car. It was not part of the pizza theme, but the kids loved having an individual train car to eat.

Source: A friend had been to a child's party at this restaurant. She gave us the idea for the place. The owner told me that he had seen kids given aprons and that they were well received. We added the pizza boxes for delivery.