Birthday Party Refreshments

Read about being a mother of 12 as our resident 'Supermom' shares her wise parenting advice.

As a mother of 12 kids, I have a lot of experience with making birthday parties, and in fact, my kids tell me that it's considered a great honor to be invited to our house for parties. Kids with the slightest connection to my children connive to get invited to their birthdays. Moms stop me in the supermarket to comment on my bravery in hosting large and rambunctious groups of children and ask me for my secrets to successful partying. It's simple: I'm a party animal!

Healthy party food is an oxymoron

That means that I wouldn't serve anything to my children's guests that I wouldn't want to eat. Healthy party food is an oxymoron: at a party, food should just be fun and not preachy. Parties are an exception to the rule that has moms struggling to push vegetables and eliminate fat from kids' diets. On the other hand, just because a food is healthy doesn't mean it can't be fun. That means you can serve a tray of raw vegetables, but you have to serve it with onion dip! You can make that yourself by stirring powdered onion soup mix into sour cream. And put out some potato chips, lots of 'em.

Your guests won't stop talking

Kids like pigs in blankets and these are easy to set up in advance. Thaw some frozen puff pastry and cut into squares. Place a hot dog at one corner and roll the dough around the wiener. Set the franks seam side down on the tray, so they won't open up as they bake. If you serve these with lots of French Fries and ketchup, you can be sure your guests won't stop talking about your party for days.

A falafel party can be a great deal of fun. You can do this buffet style, setting out bowls of various salad items and condiments to add to a pita pocket bread. Besides falafel balls and French Fries, you can put out a chopped salad of tomatoes and cucumbers, tehini sauce, pickles, and salsa. Be creative!

Make sure you have plenty of drinks on hand. Juices are good and kids accept these just as well as cola and sugary drinks, but have a case of cola on hand, too. Serving cola makes you and your child heroes in the eyes of their friends for daring to serve something containing sugar. Make sure you offer plain water, too, for those kids who have learned to prefer water.