My most recent “menu” for my son’d 4th birthday was easy and a hit.

• Pizza: We ordered pizza from a local favorite pizzaria.
• Fresh fruit salad: You can buy what is in season and on sale to keep cost down. You can also choose to cut it up your self or buy the pre-existing fruit trays that are usually available at the grocery store. Be sure to that fruit pieces are cut small enough and cut grapes in half to prevent choking hazard.
• Munchies: We had pretzels and corn chips.
• Mixed Salad: Make this at the last minute. We assembled fresh spinach, gorgonzola cheese, cranberries, sliced almonds, and red onion and offered a couple of dressings.
• Drinks: Bottled water, assorted sodas, box juices and capri sun’s kept everyone happy.
• Store bought birthday cake.

Other good options for the main entree (instead of pizza) are sandwich trays which you can get at the grocery deli, subway or other sandwich spots. Also, Costco and stores like it have tons a great prepared food and can provide inspiration if you just go and look around. We had some success for a different party with some frozen lasagnas that you can heat and serve. (Be sure to check cooking time before the day of the party to make sure you have it ready in time.)

Mini-Sized Foods and Portions

Kids love to see foods designed for their size and the portion control avoids waste. Mini pizzas (like bagel bites), baby carrots, mini muffins, and tea size sandwiches can be fun.

Depending on your time available and the number of guests, home made invitations are a nice, personal touch. Even if you can’t go fully home made, a few options follow for adding a more personal feel to the invites:

• Simply buy your standard party invite and have your child add a simple drawing, or even just paste some appropriately party themed stickers to the invite.
• Choose a photo of your kiddo to include in the invite. This works best when you can tie it into the theme of the party. (A photo of him or her in the pool for a pool party, for example. Or wearing a costume related to the party theme.)

Online Only Invitations

In todays digital age, online is often the way to go for kid’s party invitations. You and your child can have some fun together choosing the design and creating the online invite.

• Evite, http://www.evite.com – offers many party invitations you can create quickly online and email to your invite list.
• Send-O-Matic, http://www.sendomatic.com/

Create Online, Print at Home Invitations

• My Card Maker: http://www.mycardmaker.com/
• Invitation Land: http://www.invitationland.com/
• Pingg: http://www.pingg.com/