Dolls and Doughnuts Party Take Home Treats

Since we already had two activities at the party that included take home items, I made these little treat bags as a simple and inexpensive final take home for the kids. I placed them inside Abby's baby doll bed in keeping with the theme of the party and placed it on the table by my front door.

Inside the little baggies were "bacon and eggs" and donut seeds. I found both ideas via Pinterest! The donut seeds are simply cocoa Cheerios, which look like small donuts to a child. Genius!

Bacon and eggs are easy to make- you need pretzel sticks, vanilla candy melts and yellow M&Ms.

 Place three pretzels next to each other on a foil lined cookie sheet. Lay one vanilla melt on top of each threesome. Place the cookie sheet in a heated oven (I did 350) for less than 2 minutes. The vanilla will soften and you can press the M&M into the white melty candy. 

It takes about 20 minutes for the vanilla to harden again. Once it is cooled and hard, you can serve them or place them inside your goodie bags. I topped mine with cardstock designed to match the invites using A Dozen Reasons, found at Sweet Shoppe Designs. This is the digital kit I used for the invites and all of the party print outs. For snack size baggies, I have found that 7" wide by 3.25 inches tall is the best size.

For more Dolls and Doughnuts party details, click here.

Dolls and Doughnuts Party Activities

I am a big believer in having fun crafts for the guests to do at Abby Lu's birthday parties. You'll recall last year, they decorated felt cookies in keeping with the Milk and Cookies theme.

This year with her party being at breakfast and in jammies, I wanted activities that matched that theme. Ultimately, each of these were inspired by Pinterest, but had some adaptations as I thought about the age of our guests.

The two main crafts awaiting all of the guests were pillowcases to decorate and cereal necklaces to make. The necklaces were set up on Abby Lu's kid sized table in the middle of our living room. We had a big bucket of Fruit Loops and a small bucket of pink and blue curly ribbon cut into long enough pieces. The kids could sit and string the fruit loops onto the ribbon and then make a necklace or bracelet. I loved seeing kids walk around eating their creations!

The second activity allowed them to decorate pillowcases. I bought plain white pillowcases for very little on eBay. I then made two cardboard inserts from old boxes and put fabric markers in a bucket. The kids could color and decorate as they wanted with the markers. Not all kids made a pillowcase- the kids ages 5 and up seemed to most enjoy it. I want to pull it back out for Abby Lu to color one. She is always so proud to have her "art" on display!

I included a little take home instruction sheet for the parents to make sure the pillowcase art is sealed. I pulled this off the back of the fabric markers box.

The final activity provided the most fun for the adults and kids! We had the kids bob for doughnuts! We hung a dozen doughnuts via twine onto a string and hung them across the opening to the dining room.

Sweet Laura Mae was too short for this doughnut!

Once we said go, the kids went to town trying to eat their doughnut first without using their hands! It was hilarious and we all had our cameras and phones out to capture it!

Eventually we called it and let them grab the string and finish their doughnut! Hilarious fun!

If you decide to take on this activity, I would pre tie the twine onto your doughnuts the night before and then you can tie them quickly onto the string hanging on the wall. It made it quicker at the actual party!

For more Dolls and Doughnuts party ideas, click here and here.

Dolls and Doughnuts Party Foods and Recipes

When we decided to do a Dolls and Doughnuts party, I was most excited about breakfast foods. I love breakfast and brunch, so I knew it would be fun and easy!

Of course, a 9:30 am party needs coffee, milk and orange juice. We also had cold water with orange slices floating and this yummy banana punch.

I wanted a variety of sweets and protein for everyone. I also think it is important that kids' parties have foods that kids will eat and love. All this went into the menu for the party.

I found this recipe for Bacon and Egg Muffins on Pinterest. These were wonderful and super easy. Mine ended up being pretty dry, but I think it was because I made them the night before. I would recommend cooking them the morning of.

Every toddler I know loves mini pancakes. So, I made 2 boxes of them on a big cookie sheet in the oven. When done, I put three of them on a toothpick with a blueberry. This made the presentation better and easier for people to grab them. Depending upon your party colors, you could add a mint leaf, a raspberry, green grape, lots of options!

The party's fruit cups were displayed in these little baking cups. The had my blue, red and pink so I couldn't resist them. I had blueberries, mandarin oranges, bananas, apples and raspberries in the little cups.

Finally, we picked up sausage and cheese kolaches and doughnut holes from the neighborhood shop the morning of the party. We had about 40 people and I ordered 10 dozen doughnut holes. They were gone! It may have something to do with them being in reach of the birthday girl!

The final item on our menu was Jan's Gourmet Potatoes. Jan is the mother of a friend of mine and I heard she is famous for these potatoes. They were really good, but they did not end up being as much of a hashbrown casserole as I had expected. They were more like twice baked potatoes and actually tasted just like the baked potato casserole from a local bar-b-que restaurant. 

 Jan's Gourmet Potatoes

8 medium potatoes, boiled with skins on

2 c grated cheddar cheese

10 T butter

1-2 cups sour cream or half and half

1 onion, diced

1 t salt

1/2 t pepper

Boil potatoes until done. Let cool, peel and grate.

Saute onions in butter then add 1 cup of the sour cream or half and half, salt and pepper. Mix into the potatoes and add grated cheese. Pour into casserole dish. Add more half and half if needed to make the mixture moist. I used 2 full cups of half and half. Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes. Indulge yourself and add a little more cheese on top during the last 5 minutes. 

This whole casserole can be made the night before and then baked. It would be great for Thanksgiving lunch.

Finally, we had birthday cake! I didn't want a traditional cake, so I did a giant rice krispies cake, found on Martha Stewart's website. You essentially make a big batch and then fill 2 8" round cake pans with the treat, saving a handful aside in tupperware. Once cooled, the cakes are removed from the pan and stacked on top of each other. The extra you saved can be used to fill in the holes from merging the two.

In keeping with the birthday theme, we added Trix on top with the number 3 and a border. It was an unexpected twist and fun for kids and grown ups alike.

To see more on the party, click here or here. 

Dolls and Doughnuts Party Decor

We celebrated Abby Lu's 3rd birthday this past weekend with about 20 of her friends from church, daycare, Mother's Day Out and children of my husband and my friends. The party was held at 9:30 in the morning at our home. You can see the invitation I designed and the paper goods selected for the party here.

Party planning is a labor of love. As a professional meeting planner, I don't get to do as much fun, creative, social planning as I would like. Kids birthday parties have quickly become my favorite!

Dolls and Doughnuts Party Preview

My daughter's 3rd birthday party is this weekend. I truly love planning parties for her and have had her theme for almost a year! We are doing a breakfast party because I think that works well around nap schedules and I love brunch foods.

Abby loves her baby dolls right now and doughnuts are her favorite food- we have them most every Saturday morning. I thought sleepy headed kid pictures in their jammies would be fun!