2019 Valentine's Cookie Party

We hosted our second annual Valentine's Day Cookie Party this year and had twenty kids attend, along with eight moms!

I should have taken a picture because my driveway and street were filled with the most mini vans I have ever seen. The pizza delivery guy had no problem finding the house for the party!

This is the fourth cookie decorating party I have hosted, and we have grown in numbers from the original three families with six kids in attendance!

I have learned a few things along the way...

1) Expect some degree of crazy and be okay with it. This is especially true if there are going to be twenty kids under the age of 8 running loose in your home.

2) Keep the food simple. I ordered pizza, made coffee for the moms, juice boxes for kids and fresh fruit. Dessert was cookies that the kids would decorate and I had each family pay $3 per kid (moms ate free!).

3) Make the cookies ahead of time. The first couple of times I did this, I had the kids help roll out the dough and cut out the cookies, but we seemed to lose momentum when we had to pause to wait for the cookies to bake.

4) Limit the number of cookies. I used to make a somewhat unlimited number of cookies. This year I made enough for each kid to decorate two and had some leftovers. The leftover cookies are still on my counter.

5) Don't make a big effort with the activities. I had everyone bring Valentines to exchange and bring a box (or plastic grocery bag) to collect their items. The kids passed out their Valentines and then commenced playing in the basement until it was time to eat.

6) Be okay with the mess (see #1), it's probably going to be crazy and messy.

7) Accept help. My friends are so sweet and helped pick up the mess and even swept the floors before they left. My roomba took care of the rest.

8) It's okay to let your preschooler skip to school to stay home and enjoy the fun!

Our party was a success and I am so glad that we can get together like this a couple of times a year.

This year I changed up my cookie recipe and made chocolate sugar cookies and tried icing them with marshmallow cream (straight from the jar!) and also strawberry flavored icing. The chocolate cookies were a success! Here is a link to the recipe I used. I made three batches because my cookie cutters were big.