Do Me A Favor

This past week, my youngest daughter turned two.  This absolutely astonishes me, and lands me solidly in the cliched camp of bewildered "It Goes So Fast" parents who wonder who replaced their baby with this running, talking, opinionated, fully-formed miniature person.

We had a small party at our house for her, full of friends and family and food, with bubbles and chalk and tricycles for the kids.  I had a very vague theme of "flowers" but mostly I was aiming for relaxed and happy and fun.  Which we achieved, thanks to gorgeous weather allowing the children to play outside and a generous dose of sugar in the form of lots and lots of homemade cupcakes.

Now, I will admit that one of my pet peeves is children's party favors.  There is a giant industry built around it, and pressure on the parent to provide something amazing (read pricey) and theme-related to hand out.  Invariably, you either end up walking out the door with a giant bag of candy that you have to try to manipulate out of your already sugar-riddled child's sight, or a bag full of cheap, made-in-China dollar store nonsense which ranges from dangerous to useless to incredibly annoying.  (Whistles?  Really, whistles?)  At the other extreme are favors which are overly extravagant, so that you are embarrassed at the expense someone incurred on something you are still going to throw away.   So for this little party I was looking for party favors that would be inexpensive, not too sugary, preferably homemade, hopefully in line with my nebulous flower theme, wouldn't annoy parents, and that would still appeal to kids.  World peace seemed easier.

But here is what I came up with....I started with a large bag (purchased for $4 at Home Goods) of organic Vitamin C Lollipops.  (Kids love lollipops, moms love Vitamin C!)  I also bought one container of mini-cupcake baking liners...

...and dug out some leftover fabric leaves from an abandoned floral wreath project.  (You can also cut out your own leaves from green construction paper or green felt or green cupcake liners.)

 
I glued the lollipops to the center of the outside of the cupcake liners to form the flower halo (glueing to the backside allows the vibrant color to show instead of the paler inside.)  Then I folded the fabric leaves, punched a hole in the center, and slid them onto the lollipop stick.  Easy, quick, cheap, and kid-friendly.

I could rest easy knowing the kids would gobble them up without going into a sugar coma, enjoy the fact that they made a cute table decoration and fit into the flowery theme, and most of all, that I didn't break the bank making them.  Next up, world peace.