Cake and ice cream is a given. If you have access to an ice cream maker, homemade ice cream is much preferred over even the most expensive store brand. Kids love participating. Make the ice cream base the night before and chill thoroughly. Kids can help layer the salt and ice cream and will be fascinated when the liquid ice cream base turns into ice cream. An electric ice cream maker takes about 45 minutes, so plan some activities or games in the mean time. Or start the ice cream at the beginning of the party.

If you're using store bought ice cream, scoop out and place in cupcake paper liners and then re-freeze. It's MUCH easier to serve this way. If you want to get fancy, use a small or miniature ice cream scoop, and then roll the scoops in shredded coconut, cocoa, chocolate sprinkles, miniature chocolate chips, crushed nuts then re-freeze.

You may want to stick with vanilla or at least offer vanilla as an alternative. Many children are allergic to chocolate or specific ingredients, found in other flavors.

The same goes with cake. if possible, homemade is best. You might choose to bake a small cake (to put candles in) and cupcakes for each of the guests. Cupcakes are much easier to serve, when dealing with a roomful of excited guests.

Another alternative is a huge cookie baked in a pizza pan and then decorated with Happy Birthday. Use refrigerated prepared cookie dough and place the slices touching each other so they merge together when baked. When the cookie is still hot from the oven place big gumdrops on the cake, one for every birthday year, and push into the cookie. The gumdrop will melt a bit and adhere to the cookie. You can then place a candle in each gumdrop and they won't fall over.

Pizza is always a fairly safe bet when it comes to favorite foods for kid's parties. It's not overly messy and doesn't have to be fancy to be good. Consider plain cheese pizza or two or three one item choices such as all pepperoni or all mushroom. Some kids are finicky when it comes to toppings if they're all mixed together.

Most kids won't turn down hot dogs or hamburgers: especially the mini version. Serve them with french fries and fruit salad, for a yummy combination.

Offer a variety of drinks, some of which should be unsweetened. Milk, bottled water and juice are much better choices than soda or lemonade.

Making the food fun is a great party idea for kids.