The Party Favor Saga.

Every year I say I am not doing party favors at the kids' birthday parties.  I think this has got to be my least favorite thing about the parties.  I not only stress-out each year trying to come up with useful, fun items to hand out that won't break the bank, but I cringe when the kids come home with a bag of typical party favor type stuff.  Sometimes they really pile up at our house, as the kids can go to anywhere from 1 to 3 parties in a single weekend.  That's a lot of little plastic crap, bouncy balls, candy, bubbles, stickers and tattoos if you ask me.  And for the most part, the kids don't even play with any of it.  As soon as they walk in the door, it becomes my responsibility to find a home for it all. 

Unfortunately for me, all kids LOVE to get a goody bag.  Not sure when this became the rule and not the exception, but the goody bag seems to be a birthday party staple.  I just know that if all the moms banded together and said "Let's stop the madness and end goody bags forever", the kids would get used to it and come to accept it.

I've been trying hard each year now to be "that mom" to start the trend and hope all other moms behind me follow. This is the year I was determined to do it. I even joked that I was going to write on the kids' invitations, "Don't expect a goody bag". But alas, I've chickened out. However, I am getting better and decided to not buy party favors, but make something instead. My frosted sugar cookies are a huge hit every time I've ever made them. Kids and adults all go crazy for them.

For Sam's party, I made "S", dresses, and high heeled shoes cookies and gave everyone a full set in a white paper bag decorated with stickers. For Ian's party, I made "I", airplanes, stars, and circle cookies and gave everyone a full set in a white paper bag decorated with stickers. It was easy and I think the kids liked it.  Ian and Sam helped me every step of the way, from making the cookie dough, rolling it out, using the cookie cutters, and finally, frosting them.  They love to help me bake.

Kudos to my family who walked in the house Friday night, expecting dinner to be ready, and found Ian, Sam and me in the midst of frosting 7 dozen cookies.  Without batting an eye, they jumped right in and helped us finish them.

I am hoping that by next year, Ian will no longer be having big birthday parties (again, another idea I say we are going to do each year and I fail miserably at) and the need for goody bags goes away.  Sam still has a few more years of parties coming her way.  Maybe this cookie idea will be our thing.