Guest Post from The Party Works

It’s a first for me but today I am featuring a guest post. We have all been to and held kids parties, and the food is always a conundrum – go healthy and some kids won’t eat, go traditional and they are bouncing off the walls, here’s some ideas…….

 

Healthy Kids Parties

My son was invited to a birthday party about a month ago and I immediately began to worry. I knew the mother of the boy who was celebrating his 7^th birthday and I knew that she had a tendency to spoil her children with sugary treats and fatty foods. Sure, those things have their place, but I didn’t want little Arthur gorging himself on pizza, candy and ice cream. I had it on good authority that this mother, who in all other respects was a great parent, kept a candy bar in her purse for every time her kids got an “A” on a test or held the door open for an old woman at the grocery store or ate a carrot. To top it off, her husband was an amateur hot dog eating champion! I was worried going into it so I came up with a few ways to make sure little Liam’s next birthday wouldn’t end in a sugar crash.

Pizza! Pizza!

Pizza is one birthday party staple that is hard to replace. I’ve experimented with making my own pizzas and I’ve always had a great time while doing it. It’s pretty simple to let kids make their own pizzas. You can buy wheat dough, have them roll it out, cover it in pizza sauce and top it with veggies, a selection of cheeses and pepperonis. This is a much healthier alternative to the grease-soaked bread that most pizza places will try to get you to eat.

Pop Replacement

Sodas are one thing I try to steer Liam clear of all the time. Did you know that one soda a day for a year will add 10 pounds of fat to the average person? If you can cut these sugary indulgences out of your child’s diet and out of their party, you’ll be doing everyone a favor. Instead, replace the soda with all natural fruit juice. For a pool party, try whipping up some smoothies using fruit, yoghurt and ice.

Cake Conundrum

How do you have a party without birthday cake? That’s a hard one to answer and you’ll probably find that a cake is the hardest thing to replace at a party. The good news is that cakes come in a lot of varieties. You don’t have to have a rich, thick cake with buttery icing. You can have an angel food cake with a light, sugar-free icing. This fluffy birthday cake will provide the perfect denouement to your child’s soiree.

Genny is a guest blogger who writes about party planning issues, such as how to throw the perfect Super Mario birthday party.