The Barnacle (read: baby) turns two next week and I've got 30 people descending on my house on Friday whose ages range from one to 100. (Seriously. The genes in my husband's family are ridiculous.)
Since I had to schedule it after nap time for her and relatively close to end-of-work hours for the adults, the party is from 4 to 7. All you veteran birthday party throwers know what that means: Not only do I have to do decorations, party favors and cake, but now I'm making dinner, too. Oh, joy.
But did you watch the video yet? I mean is there anything I wouldn't do for that adorable little monkey to exend the photo opp? Dinner it is.
Now the temptation at this point is to grab a bunch of cheap disposable plates, order Domino's and call it a day. But that would be very un-green. In fact, I would say that's Mommy Brownest behavior. So my quest is to create a kids' birthday party that's relatively eco-friendly and, most importantly considering the economic crisis my family is feeling so sharply these days, cheap.
FIRST ADD FLOWERS
First on the agenda: Decorations. I'm going to skip the balloons this year. Despite the fact that latex is a natural substance that biodegrades, and I can buy compostable ribbon, I'm going with tiny bouquets of flowers scattered on the table. Flowers don't take six months to biodegrade, during which time even a latex balloon could wreak all kinds of havoc to a wayward pelican. Although I really love these gnome-shaped numbers embedded with flower seeds!
My cost? Free, if you don't count labor, since I'm making bouquets of flowers and herbs from my garden. Environmental cost? If you can't get them from your ground, find flowers at EcoFlowers, which sells in bulk for less and is all kinds of sustainable.
SERVE IT UP
Instead of using disposables, I'm committed to washing dishes later in the evening. But because I simply don't have enough glasses for that many kids, I'm going to invest in some corn-based biodegradable plastic cups to fill with organic apple juice diluted with water. Rather than going to the landfill, these will go into my compost, where they'll break down into water, carbon dioxide and organic material within three months--as opposed to plastic cups, which take 500 years or more and never fully biodegrade, but just break down into tiny pieces that can distrupt the eco-system. But I digress. These days, you can get biodegradeable plastic cups, cutlery, plates and bowls in many supermarkets, including, of course, Whole Foods.
My cost? $20 for 50 for the cups. And about $7 for the juice. Environmental cost? Minimal, unless you get all nitpicky about it and figure out how much fossil fuel the cup company used in production. Whatevah.
PEACE A PIZZA
Rather than ordering pizza made from inorganic ingredients and a whole lotta sugar, I'm going to make my own. I like the whole wheat dough ($.99 for enough dough for two pies) from Trader Joe's, but in a pinch I'd use a Boboli. Making that much pizza dough is just plain scary. TJs also has some great organic tomato sauce ($1.39 spreads on four) and organic shredded mozzarella (enough for four at $3.79). For an adult option, I'll spread organic pesto ($2.19 for two), cover it with organic diced asparagus ($5.49 for two), throw on a few basil leaves from the herb garden (free!) and add chunks of feta cheese ($2.99 for two) to the mozzarella. Yum! To save plates, we'll serve on mismatched cloth napkins, rather than some vaguely Disney-an character she'd barely recognize.
My cost? $18.82 for six pies. Environmental cost: All organic, so no chemicals there. And I'll try to buy as much as I can locally produced. Too bad it's not still tomato season, but we eat ours faster than I could've canned them, anyway.
LET THEM EAT CAKE
Now the piece de resistance: The cake. After a serious boxed-batter dependency--I have three kids; we make a lot of cakes--I broke out the old Joy of Cooking last week and was pleasantly surprised by how damn easy a homemade sponge cake can be. Flour, eggs, baking powder, sugar; powdered sugar for the frosting. That's pretty much it. And it's a non-crumbly cake that can be served--you guessed it--on napkins.
I'm not going to itemize the cost, but I'd estimate about $4 for the whole shebang. And that's using organic and free range everything.
FINISHING TOUCHES
What's left? We're doing a gift trade, where everyone brings a gift for a two-year-old and they all pick one to take home, including Chloe. So that takes care of the gift bags.
Hmm... entertainment. What's more entertaining than a bunch of two-year-olds wreaking havoc on my house? Free and eco-friendly!
That's $49.82, start to finish. Wish me luck.
