Madeline turned five about five weeks into the school year last year. It’s well-known tradition that the birthday kid brings in a treat to share with the class. Just a couple of weeks earlier a child in Madeline’s class had brought in a movie theatre sized box of candy for each child as for their birthday treat. A movie theatre sized box of candy is exciting to five-year-olds and terrifying to parents. Especially this parent. A pound of nerds is not high on the list of things I want to see my daughter walk out of class carrying. It’s no secret I’m not a big fan of junk food filled with artificial colors, preservatives, huge amounts of sugar, fake flavors and chemicals.
The policy at Madeline’s school only allows store-bought foods making options quite limited. After talking with Luke we decided it was more important to stick with our conscious and not spend a bunch of money on treats we really didn’t approve of. So store-bought cupcakes topped with greasy tasting frosting and huge boxes of candy were out. We needed a store-bought treat that Madeline would be excited to share while also not going against our personal food beliefs. Madeline was not interested in giving out pencils, erasers or tiny bottles of bubbles – which would have solved the questionable ingredients issue- since the bar had already been set with the economy size box of candy.
To add to the challenge- or maybe to make it easier on myself, I’m not really sure which- I was hoping to come up with one idea to satisfy both the need for a classroom treat and a birthday party favor. With this in mind we brainstormed ideas to go along with Madeline’s impending butterfly themed party and settled on very cute butterfly party favors to made us all happy. Actually we were quite excited. Madeline even helped craft the little butterfly party favors.
We made cute butterfly goody bags with wings filled with Unreal candy coated chocolates and Unreal peanut butter cups. (No, Unreal has no idea who I am, I just like their products.) We decided to use Unreal candy because it is free of artificial colors, preservatives, partially hydrogenated oils, corn syrup and GMOs. Yes, it is still candy but it is lower in sugar and junk ingredients than comparable well known brands.
Maddy painted clothes pins using a few different colors and helped to cut matching pipe cleaners in half. I found some fun patterned plastic goody bags and using the pieces Madeline had already prepared for the project put together some adorable butterfly treats. The butterfly’s were simple to put together and so cute when finished.
How to Make Adorable Treat Filled Butterfly Party Favors
1. Each goody bag started out with a small scoop of Unreal candy coated chocolates.
2. An Unreal peanut butter cup went into the remaining end of the bag. About a 1/4 to a 1/2 inch of the open end of the bag was folded over and taped shut.
3. The bag was then twisted at about the middle with a pipe cleaner wrapped around the twist to form antenna.
4. A painted clothes pin clipped on over the twisted pipe cleaner made the body of the butterfly.
Viola! A cute butterfly themed classroom and birthday party treat with realistic portions and real ingredients to boot!
What other treats can you think of you put in these cute butterfly goody bags?
