Birthday Cupcakes/cake Not Allowed at School!

I like the idea to do cut up fruit and dip. If you decide to do cut up apples with dip (maybe caramel dip since its fall), you can buy them pre-cut in bags where they are treated with lemon juice and won't brown. This makes using apples easier and prettier. You might even bring other toppings like mini chocolate chips and Halloween colored sprinkles so the kids could make their own version of candy apples. Dip the apples in the caramel, and then sprinkle with toppings.

I have done a fruit tray with various dips. I plan to do it for my son's class for our Fall festival party. I get strawberries, pineapple, apples (red, green and yellow) and kiwi. I get chocolate sauce for the strawberries and there are several yougurt-based fruit dips and some cream cheese based fruit dips. The kids love it !!! Do not slice the apples until you get to class because they will turn brown very quickly (unless you have a method of keeping them from turning brown). Good luck!

Please let me take the opposite side...do you really want to eat something cooked in a kitchen that might have maggots in the sink, week old blood from thawed meat on the bottom of the plate the cupcakes are sitting on, etc...you really don't know what kind of conditions those treats are cooked in. Food poisoning of a whole class isn't funny. How do you know the people cooking them don't have drugs that accidentally might get mixed in.

This is the main reason that more and more facilities are making only store bought items allowed, with the seal intact. For kids safety. I agree with the concept. Only health inspected kitchens. The school has to have their kitchens inspected, so should the food the kids eat for parties.

So, go to familyfun.com, or parentcenter.com, or some recipe websites and look up healthy snacks in the search engine. You can get some very healthy ideas that can spark your imagination and give you inspiration as to what to buy. The kitchen at your school may be able to give you ideas too.

Bran muffins with raisins or blueberries
Large strawberries
Pretzels

My grandson had someone bring in fruit kabobs for their birthday. They had 2 kabobs each. Pineapple, grapes(all colors), apples, melon, etc... You could probably get plastic or wooden skewers at a dollar store and just load them up. I thought it was a cute healthy idea.

my son goes to a head start and this is what we were told we could do for halloween, maybe you could for a b-day. we were told if we brought everything new into there kitchen that we could cook it in there kitchen. you might could ask not sure but it is worth a try

Cheese and crackers - since it is close to halloween can you use a pumpkin cookie cutter and cut the cheese into shapes?

We have the same deal at my daughter's school. I sent a bag of baby goldfish and the kids loved it (3-5 year olds). Since your daughter is older she make like some of the flavored ones: e.g. pizza or pretzel.

What about tasty muffins?

Geez how lame! Kids can't even have birthday treats anymore? If there would be somewhere to store it you could always do a fruit pizza. It has to be store bought? I'm pretty sure most produce sections in grocery stores have stuff like that readily available quite often. It would be cheaper if you could make it, obviously. I just can't believe you can't give out cupcakes. That's why it's called a "treat". What kid wants raisins for a birthday treat?!

T.,

When I worked at headstart the policy was changed to healthy snacks and the parents brought in stuff for parties like fresh fruit (which you can slice in the classroom), frozen juice bars (which kids see as just popcicles), frozen go gurt (yogurt pops), goldfish snacks, popcorn or pretzels along with juice boxes,or vanilla wafers and pudding cups.
I had a mom bring in and assembled graham crackers on a cookie sheet covered in strawberry cream cheese. It looked neat and the kids loved it.

I know the school policy doesn't allow homemade stuff, but sometimes the teachers will allow you to buy stuff and put together in the classroom where they see you doing it.
Just think about your daughters foods she likes and put together a healthy snack. Kids are excited to eat just about anything as a celebration in the middle of a school day. Good luck! Let us know what you decide on.

S.

What a lame rule. The only thing I could come up with was fruit. I don't know how expensive they are but a fruit bouquet would be really fun. If you had a friend make it would it still be considered store bought? It is the same thing since it is fruit and the store doesn't make that, right? lol Good luck and I hope you can find something to work for you!

My first thought, like Brit, was fruit. Many stores will make a fruit tray for you if you place an order in advance. They also have fruit bouquets at ediblearrangements.com which are cute and unique but prices seem to start around $60. Good luck.

What if you donated a fun book or set of books (or something of that sort) to the class in her honor. Healthy, green, educational....

My son likes to bring pudding cups to school for his birthday. Another idea is granola bars or they have individual packs of teddy grahms, vanilla wafers or grahm crackers out now.