a You’re Invited... To A Birthday Party Children love parties, especially birthday parties. And, the party that will be remembered long after the traditional cake and ice cream is the party you’ve created with love and imagination. The very best parties have a theme, and here’s where your child will definitely have an opinion. Will it be a safari? A circus? Dino saurs? Or, the latest movie charac ter? Put your imagination to work as you plan the invitation, decora tions, entertainment, even the menu. • Make the invitation unique. If your theme is a “day at the zoo,” use animal postcards you can buy at the zoo gift shop. An invitation that will be hand-delivered can take the form of a large animal shaped butter cookie. Use colored decorator’s icing to write the date, time, and place. • Be sure the decorations car ry out the theme. Borrow your child’s stuffed animals and add brightly colored balloons and streamers. If you’re artistic, use colored construction paper and felt tip pens to make animal heads out of balloons. They’ll make great favors. A tape or record with ani mal noises playing in the back ground will add to the atmosphere. • Start the party as soon as the first guest arrives. It’s a good idea to plan an opening activity because not all of the children will arrive at the same time. Arts and crafts work well here. Then, when every one is finished, you can begin the games. • Be creative with games. Three and four-year-olds enjoy simple games with a new twist like a banana (instead of an egg) toss or pin the trunk on the ele phant. Five and six-year-olds are ready for a safari treasure hunt. Whatever the game, don’t forget the prize for everyone! • Make the food special. Child ren delight in food that takes on new forms. Parrot Punch, created by*the American Dairy Association, has a bright green color. Lime sherbet, milk, and frozen limeade concen trate are blended until smooth, then topped with lemon-lime soda Win A Prize For Your Favorite Dairy Recipe Lancaster Faming celebrates June Dairy Month by offering cow-mania prizes for your favorite recipe using at least one dairy product such as butter, milk, cream, cheese, yogurt, or Ice cream. It may be a recipe for a main dish, dessert, salad, beverage, snack, bread, soup, appetizer, or whatever you desire. To enter the drawing, send only one recipe with your name, complete address, and phone number. Please Include several paragraphs about your farm, family, Inter ests, or other tidbits of Information. Although it Is not required, we especially appreciate receiving a picture of you or your family with your entry. Send your recipe (one per family) Immediately. Your entry must be postmarked by May 30 to be eligible for the drawing. Send your entry to Lou Ann Good, Lancaster Farming Dairy Drawing, P.O. Box 609, Ephrata, PA 17522. Buna On nu Range for a fizzy finish. Fruit perched on the rim of the glass resembles the parrot’s colorful feathers. No kid will be able to resist the “Beary” Chocolate Birthday Cake. It’s simple to make because it uses a chocolate cake mix. Yogurt added to the mix keeps this bear moist and tender even if you bake it a day ahead. Frost with a simple buttercream frosting and decorate with candies. To expand the menu, offer Gir affe Grilled Cheese (use animal shaped cookie cutters to cut the whole wheat bread and American cheese slices) and monkey nibbles (assorted raw vegebles, apple wedges and seedless grapes). The sandwiches can be assembled ahead and refrigerated to be cooked at the last minute. • Ending the party on a happy note. When it’s time to say good bye and thank you, let the birthday child hand each guest a goody bag. Colorful tote bags decorated with animal stickers can hold a zoo-full of loot animal erasers, stickers, a decorated animal-shaped butter cookie, a book, and a pair of funny sun glasses. EDIBLE SNOWMAN Materials: 3 large marshmallows 6 small marshmallows 1 Hershey Kiss 8 chocolate chips S toothpicks Procedure: For body: Using two toothpicks, fasten together the large marshmallows for the body. For hat: Insert one end of a half tooth pick into the Hershey Kiss and the other end into the “head.” For arms: Insert toothpick with three small marshmallows into the middle large marshmallow. Facial Features and Buttons: use chocolate chips to form facial features and buttons. Denise Wenger MilTlintown “Bsary" Chocolate Birthday ( delight young guests at the “I CLOWN CAKE Vi gallon vanilla ice cream, softened l A gallon Neapolitan ice cream, softened Maraschino cherries Gum drops Sweetened whipped cream Line a 9-inch round cake pan and an 8-inch square cake pan with aluminum foil, letting edges Greats a toiMer with Ice cream, cones, cookie, and candy toppings. Photo by American Oaky Aaaoclation. ~ .rot inch,. iay at the Zoo" party. extend beyond edges of pans. Pack vanilla ice cream in round pan. Neapolitan in square pan. Freeze several hours or overnight To form clown, follow diagrams below. Place on large tray or foil covered board (clown is approxi mately 9x16-inches). Decorate face with gumdcops rolled out on Featured Recipe Kids cones are fun to make for a children’s party. With a supply of vanilla ice cream, some flat-bottom cones and cookie and candy deco rations. you can loose creativity. Here are some ideas from the Ameri can Dairy Association to get you started. First, place large scoops of vanilla ice cream on the number of cones desired. For soOdcr: Invert colored flat-bottom cone on ice cream for hat Cut chocolate wafer cookie in half; use half for visor of hat Use blace licorice shoestring candy for chin strap, red cinnamon candies for eyes and nose and red shoestring candy for mouth. Use pieces of hard candy for ears. For butterfly: Cut a chocolate wafer cookie (or brown edge wafer, striped shortbread, etc.) in half. Arrange as wings on ice cream by pressing curved edge of each half into ice cream at 45 degree angle. Use red cinnamon candies or other small candies for eyes and pieces of candy shoestring for antennae. Cookie may be decorated with tube of prepared frosting piped through tip with small hole. For candy flowers, fruit: Roll out large gumdrops on sugared sur face. Cut into petals for flower. Arrange on ice cream to form flower. Use small piece of candy for center. Cut green gumdrops to form leaves and item. Or cut into fruit shape, such as an apple. Use green for stem and leaves. Cheese will I raffe sugared surface and then cut to form eyebrows and mouth. Use half of a gumdrop for each eye. Use cherries for nose and to deco rate hat. Pipe whipped cream through a pastry tube fitted with a fluted tip to form bottom of hat and knot on bow tie. Return to freezer for several hours before serving. (Turn to Pogo B 8)