Milk and Cookies Party: Crafts

I did a couple of simple crafts for the milk and cookies party last weekend. The focus was the food, so we didn't want to have too many additional distractions.

I made a front door wreath that was very easy and inexpensive.

Here are the supplies- a straw wreath, 8 yards of ribbon (I only had 6 of the blue and added 2 of the tan), accent ribbon, felt cookies, and the number 2 (wooden, painted brown).

The joy of using the straw wreath is that I attached the ribbon was straight pins. No need to use glue, this keeps it in place but also allows you to remove the ribbon afterward and reuse it. I wrapped the ribbon around the wreath and secured it with pins on the back side in 4 spread out places. After wrapping the chocolate brown accent ribbon, it was time to attach the #2 and the cookies.

I also attached the cookies using the pins. The dark head matched the chocolate chip and made it easy to attach. I attached the wooden #2 with E-6000 and hung it on the door with ribbon. For a different type of front door wreath, see Abby's 1st birthday entry decor.

My Mom and I made 5 dozen felt cookies for the kids to decorate. We decorated an additional 1 dozen for the party. These were super simple to make.

I grabbed a variety of sizes of jar lids from my kitchen and used them as my cookies. We then cut felt in ivory, tan, and brown in sets of 2. You can get about 6 circles or 3 cookies out of each 20 cent piece of felt. Using a simple needle and thread, we sewed each cookies about 75% and then stuffed it with a handful of batting and sewed it shut.

I bought felt glue at Hobby Lobby for the kids to use and placed all of the cookie accessories in an old muffin tin spray painted blue. The cookie extras included icing, cut a little smaller than the cookie, colored M&Ms cut in circles, dark and white chocolate chips cut as small squares.

The kids had fun decorating their fake cookies and my sister took all of the leftovers to her preschool class for the kids there to enjoy.

Thanks for coming to our milk and cookies party. I hope you found some ideas to inspire your next event!

Milk and Cookies Party: Food with Recipes

A milk and cookies party has to be all about the food! I tried to create a soda shop look from many years ago and keep things homemade and simple.

For the milk, I purchased replica vintage milk bottles from Crate and Barrel. They were placed in this white metal 6 pack carrier from Target's summer line. We had organic whole milk, fat free milk and 2% milk. To make it fun, we had 4 different types of straws and chocolate, caramel, or strawberry syrup to flavor up the milk.

We also had lemonade and bottled water. I covered the bottled water labels with matching #2 labels. They are super easy- just measure the height and length around your bottle's label and design something for it you like. I printed 5 per sheet on a color copier and taped them onto the bottles.

Let's talk cookies.... I had about 400 of them for this party! We had about 50 people. Since they were the main food, they were set up like a buffet and we had to go boxes, I did not want to run out. We only ran out of 1 cookie... you'll see why! In total, we had 12 different types of cookies. I made 10 of them and had my friend (a tasty baker on the side) make 2 of the cookies I didn't think I could do well.

Kelly made the cute blue sprinkled #2 cookies. I am certain my 2 year old ate her fair share of these. Great for the kids.

Kelly also made red velvet whoopie pies. These were decadent!

To pull off 10 different types of cookies in 2 days, I made a mix of my favorites, premade doughs and new recipes from the internet. Nothing was complex. I just looked around and starting bookmarking recipes I liked a few months out. When it came time to narrow it down, I focused on the variety I wanted- nuts vs. no nuts, chocolate, colorful, etc.

Here is the mix:

Fudge Crinkles- super easy, tasty, simple!

The contrast of powdered sugar on the dark chocolate is pretty. I would not make these ahead of time- the powder sugar gets sticky at day 2.

Homemade Oreos- these were the best and we ran out quickly. The recipe made 2 dozen, so I think lots of people missed out. I'll make these again!

Lemon Sugar Snaps- I looked high and low for a lemon cookie and these did not disappoint. I have eaten my fair share of leftovers of these. Note, I couldn't find lemon cake mix with pudding and the non-pudding version worked just fine.

Caramel Chocolate Cookies- these are pretty and appear much more complex than they are. Hiding a Rolo inside a chocolate cookie is genius!

For the classic chocolate chip cookie, I made the mini cookies from Nestle Tollhouse dough. I thought I couldn't go without the staple cookie, but wanted them small since people would be trying other things.

same thing here... standard peanut butter mix from the grocery store. These are the one cookie I'd like to go back and bake. They were a little crispy.

Grasshoppers- a new family favorite! I wanted to have Thin Mints at the party, but the Girl Scouts aren't selling cookies just yet. These will work whenever Thin Mints aren't within reach.

Ranger Cookies- a good number of people didn't know what a Ranger cookie was. They are one of my favorites because they are filled with so much stuff- nuts, cornflakes, coconut, raisins, and oats. They also make about 5 dozen because of all the stuff inside!

Our local grocery store has an organic cookie dough line and they make Cranberry Walnut cookie dough. Abby loves dried cranberries so I added these in for her. Then I remember she has a nut allergy! We enjoyed them for her!

Finally, I made the Oatmeal Raisin cookies from the Quaker Oats container. You can't go wrong, that recipe must be 100 years old.

Since it was early January and many people resolved to eat better in the new year, we also had a large veggie tray with dip and a meat, cheese, cracker tray. Both were wiped out so I think they were a good balance to the sweet cookies.

I baked for this party with love, but I am also in no mood to bake for quite a while. I had powdered sugar everywhere for 2 days!

Milk and Cookies Party: Decor

Come in! Welcome to our daughter's milk and cookies 2nd birthday party created with love and a lot of brown sugar. :)

I struggled with a theme for this blond pigtailed princess. I wanted something simple, unique, and wanted to take advantage of what could be the last party theme I get to pick. There are few things my girl loves more than milk, so I went with it!

Here is the table with 12 different types of cookies for our 50 plus guests to enjoy. I'll share the f cookies and links to many of the recipes soon.

I wanted a soda shop feel, so I used glass jars, cake plates, and a few platters. The color palette was simple- mainly white, clear glass and silver. Overall the party was ivory, chocolate brown, white, tan and a little bit of cookie monster blue.

The cookie jars were labeled with khaki 2.5" circle labels from Paper Source. The tablecloth was a multi-day project with my Mom and I. I bought 5 rectangular tablecloths from Hobby Lobby to make the ruffled skirt. The inspiration and details are from here. We topped it off with ribbon to cover the seams which weren't always straight.

Next to the cookies, we had our drink station with lemonade, bottled water, and various milks. After picking your milk (whole, fat free or 2%), you were able to add chocolate, caramel or strawberry syrup. Then, you had to pick your straw! We had vanilla and chocolate cookie straws found in the cereal aisle at the grocery store, chocolate candy straws, and the perfect blue and white striped straws that were only 5 cents a piece!

I purchased vintage milk bottles on eBay and used them throughout the house with white flowers and coordinating ribbons. I had originally wanted to use them as the milk pitchers, but they were a little too vintage. :) I did find Ball jars with the shape of milk bottles for the guests to pour their drinks from. If I had an unlimited budget, I would have had mason jars for all!

To help set the mood, we hung simply made felt cookies from the chandeliers using ribbons and clothespins.

Of course I had to make a banner! I thought about sweet or got milk. I ended up using sweet in other places, so I went with Got Milk for the banner and hung it across the archway that leads into our living space. I placed 2 nails in the wall about halfway and then tied the ribbon around the nails.

Since we had so many kids coming and no bounce house to entertain them, I needed inexpensive activities. We had a station for kids to decorate felt cookies that they could take home with them. Abby loves her play kitchen, so we assumed other kids would like having cookies for their kitchens, too.

We also set up a milk mustache photo station. These pictures were so much fun!

Favors for the kids to take home? We had simple brown favor boxes so they could take home a few of their favorite cookies and these die cut milk cartons filled with chocolate powder inside a snack sized baggie. I cut down those 5 cent straws for color and fun!

I added labels using Paper Source round stickers and coordinating ribbon. These were one of my favorite elements. Very inexpensive, cute, and theme appropriate.

As guests were leaving, we left them with a parting message.

The party was sweet, too! Abby had a great time seeing so many of her friends and eating a plethora of sugar cookies. More details on the crafts and recipes found here.

Milk and Cookies Party: Invite

My daughter is 2 today. I am officially the mother of a toddler and not a baby. She is the greatest gift I have ever received and she brings my husband and I so much joy.

To celebrate her special day, we are having about 40 of our friends over for milk and cookies next Saturday. I can't wait to share all of the party pictures with you after the party. I have lots of simple and inexpensive ideas!

Until then, here is a look at the inspiration post from A Party Style.

Happy Birthday Abby Lu!