Brigadeiro virtual birthday party for kids
December is an extra busy time of year for us. We have four family birthdays and the kids birthdays are three days apart! Each year, we alternate between a “home DIY party” or a special venue party to keep things interesting. This year in order to stay within county restrictions, we held our home party on zoom.
Jump on over to my friend Amy’s YouTube channel to check out the guest experience.
Zoom party for 12!
The theme of the event was chocolate - an idea I blatantly stole from my own team holiday bonding event (expertly hosted by the good people at TinyB chocolate). The crux of the event was to make Brazilian truffles also known as “brigadeiros” together. We spent some time evolving the idea as a family so that we had elements of interactivity, education and entertainment. Once we figured out the arc of the event, we went into planning and execution mode.
Event prep - shopping list
Brigadeiro chocolate base: Dark chocolate, condensed milk and butter. This recipe makes enough for one family.
4oz Mason jars to store chocolate truffle base: I would do three 4oz jars per family. Deeper jars make it harder for little hands to scoop out.
Small re-sealable plastic bags (2”x3") to store toppings
Toppings of choice: crushed peppermint candy (hot favorite with the kids!), coconut, sprinkles, chocolate sprinkles, almonds
Small 7” paper plates to roll truffles in: One plate per topping
Party Favors
Laminated brigadeiro recipe card (designed on Canva.com)
Plain kids aprons for iron-on designs
Avery Iron-on transfer paper: Read the instructions very carefully. I had no idea you were not supposed to use ironing boards!
Iron-on designs were sketched by Emmy on the iPad using the Sketches app. or plenty of artists you can find on Etsy as well
Poms-poms made by Emmy using pom-pom maker: We didn’t really need to do this but she had so much fun making them we decided to add them into the bags.
Prep
The kids assembled all the party supply bags and we toured the neighborhood to do our drop-offs from a safe distance. Mikee also figured out how to use his SLR as the broadcast camera so that we got a really clear and wide-angle broadcast feed on Zoom.
Agenda
3:00pm - Welcome, informal tech check and expectations-setting
3:05pm - Kahoot! Team Quiz to get to know Emmy, and Thomson and chocolate better! For older kids, you could make this into a more competitive leaderboard competition. I did not want to have to deal with potential tech challenges with younger kids, so I facilitated the game myself and had kids raise their hands to answer the old-school way.
10 more days to play! Expires Jan 10th.
3:10pm - Kitchen Scavenger hunt: The kids were given a list of items in a “top secret” envelope that they had to find in their kitchen. The items were rolling pin, ziplock bag, teaspoon and a crunchy snack of their choice.
3:15pm - Topping making: Each kid picked their favorite snack from the pantry and crushed them in ziplocks to make their own topping
3:20pm - Brigadeiro lesson: How to roll brigadeiros as well as recipe tips
3:25pm - Free brigadeiro-making and optional creative challenge: Make a brigadeiro that reminds you of the Holidays! We had snow mans, Christmas cookies and even the sun! It’s like play-doh, but edible!
3:50pm - Last team challenge: Each child was given a single letter in their drop-off. We all opened up our letters (that were jumbled out on the zoom gallery view) and had to guess what the phrase was! No surprise - it was “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”
3:55pm - Surprise closing video: We collected birthday greetings from friends and family and compiled it into a sweet music video for everyone to enjoy. This was definitely the highlight for both Emmy and Thomson.
Reflections
Was this a ton of work? Yes!
Would I do it again? Yes!
Why?
It was actually both fun and rewarding to have the kids work on their own party throughout the holidays. We had tasks we had to knock off from the list every day and it gave us a common project to work towards. I could tell how proud they were of the outcome. This has definitely made our family stronger.
Pro tips
Some of you may know that I’m actually in the business of storytelling (although serious hats off to teachers teaching virtually around the world) so I was able to actually mix work with pleasure. If you plan to host your own kids zoom party, here are some tips:
Keep it both the invite list and timing short. I found the sweet spot to be one hour for ten kids. This allows plenty of time for kids to take turns and participate throughout the event.
Do a cue-2-cue of the event and run through every single transition ahead of time. Yes, almost like a rehearsal. This will pay off in spades if you uncover critical experience gaps ahead of time. For example, asking the kids to participate in a quiz in the middle of brigadiero making is probably not the best idea given all the sticky chocolate hands! A cue-2-cue is also super helpful because it means you have actually tested the timing for your agenda. Use a time-timer to help you keep track of the event to move things along.
Get help. If possible, have another adult help behind the scenes with things that will come up or even play timekeeper. Assign them co-host privileges in zoom so they can help trouble shoot issues. The more you can assign dedicated tasks to other people, the better it will be for you as host!
Super important - Set expectations with both YOUR kids (ahead of time) and the attendees about the rules of the event. E.g. Mics are on mute, raise your hand if you have a question. Our kids like to be monkeys on camera, so they had to be aware of how that could potentially disrupt the experience for others.
Plan in a surprise delighter: These things don’t have to be costly. You could have a surprise music performance by a family member, watch a special YouTube video together or gift a “mix-tape” Spotify playlist of the family’s favorite songs. In our case, we made a birthday greeting music video ahead of time and unveiled it to everyone. Go for low-key + high-impact!
Special thanks to all the parents working behind the zoom camera to make this event happen for our kids!
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