Cooking for a Co-Ed Birthday Party My soon to be seven year old daughter wanted a fun party that both girls and boys would enjoy.  We decided on a cooking party. She invited 14 children. Invitations for the party were on a recipe card look alike made on my computer with a photo of my daughter smiling as the final product.   The invitation stated the ingredients as friends, games and cooking, mix together for a terrific birthday celebration.  In preparation for the party, I made personalized chef hats using white poster board, white tissue paper, hot glue gun and a white sticker stating "Chef So and So".  The birthday girl's chef had had jewels added to it.  I then sewed white aprons for each and had the names of each child embroidered on with a chef graphic. I purchased wooden and plastic spoons and rubber scrapers for each child to take home.  I added their names and birthday stickers to each and then covered with craft glue to protect the stickers. I ordered 5 inch cake boxes on-line and decorated with a round sticker "Decorated by Chef So and So" and added birthday stickers. I then baked a 5 inch cake for each child, wrapped each cake and placed in the freezer.  I made personalized placemats with a red gingham background with a Thank You printed on each.  I bought plain ShrinkyDink paper at JoAnn Fabric and printed out all sorts of graphics that I knew both the girls and boys would like (colored soccer balls, animals, etc…).  I sharpened a bucket of colored pencils too….  The party – went awesome. We had red and white table clothes, red cups, multi colored plates and multi colored helium balloons.  The table was set in place settings. The birthday girl was at the head of the table. Each place setting included the placemat, chef hat, apron and cooking tools. Once the guests arrived, I had them pose for a group photo. While the party was taking place, I printed a group photo for each child on 4x6 photo stock.  On the back of the stock was a preprinted thank you for each child – again in recipe card style and a change in verbiage to say thank you for being a main ingredient in a special birthday celebration.  While the kids colored Shrinky Dinks, I took the cakes out of the freezer and placed on dessert plates. I placed the decorations in bowls (gummy bears and worms, Reese's Pieces and colorful sprinkles). While the Shrinky Dinks were baking, each child chose a cake (white or chocolate) and a frosting.  They had a terrific time decorating their own cakes!  The cakes were then placed into their individual cake box and set aside. They then enjoyed pizza and strawberry or banana smoothies.  After singing and cake and ice cream, each child presented the birthday girl with her present. I took a photo of each child with my daughter for distribution later.  We completed the day with a race with marshmallows on a spoon – too much fun!     Thank you gifts – each child took home their cake in the decorated and personalized box, their finished Shrinky Dinks, cooking utensils, blow horn, apron & chef hat and the group photo with thank you not on the back.   The mom's actually commented that the cakes tasted great!