Archive for April, 2008

The Kids Birthday Party 'Worst Enemy': Too Much Sugar

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008

With good birthday party games, you should have no trouble keeping your partygoer’s engaged and on track with the planned activities rather than causing problems and wrecking the party. UNLESS you’ve loaded them up with all the sugar that’s in all the traditional party foods. The excitability that sugar creates makes it much harder for the kids to stay focused on your games, and that can be ‘death’ to a party that’s enjoyed by all- including you.

Candy isn’t the only evildoer here either. Those chips and pretzels are just as bad: the simple carbs in them are converted to sugar way faster than the complex carbs in fruits and vegetables. So you’re not just sending them home on a sugar high- you’re getting the nefarious effects on your watch.

And the kids don’t have to groan when they see your healthy food presentation. You can make it attractive and inviting without the nasty results. My favorite, and a big hit with the kids, has always been chocolate covered strawberries.

A foray onto the web for other ideas turned up lots of good resources. To start, you’ll find a quick list at Kids Party Advice. There’s a yummy sounding apple treat at Penelope Plans. Scroll through all 10 screens of healthy snack ideas at FamilyFun. For vegetarian and dairy/gluten free ideas, check out the list at Adorable Gift Baskets. Lastly, I found 3 more good ideas at girl.com.au.

And for a drink that is also a healthful snack, that helps fill them up a bit and keep the munchies at bay, try one of these delicious smoothies. Making these could even be one of your party activities- I’m sure your neighbors would lend you a couple of extra blenders for the day of your celebration.

One idea always seems to lead to another: how ’bout a smoothie making competition as part of the Survivor Party smorgasbord of games - the best tasting combination wins? You just supply the fruit/yogurt/milk ingredients and they create/drink/choose the winner? Take it one step further and have them create green smoothies - a twist on eating bugs or some similar gross Survivor type challenge that might even show them that healthy can actually taste good!

So don’t let the sugar highs ruin your birthday celebration. Combine these food ideas with any of the great games from Birthday Party Games Lady and your group of kids will be having a ball doing what there supposed to be doing and not turning you into the bad cop. Have Fun!!

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