greening the birthday party

My little guy had his birthday this weekend. I tried my best to improve my approach to the typical kid party. I was more green than I used to be, but nowhere near perfect.

We had just a few friends celebrate with us at a local playground. It was morning, so we served bagels, fruit, coffee, juice, water and cupcakes.

The things I did to try to be more green were:

• had a big compost bag to collect used paper goods and food scraps
• used recycled paper napkins (not cute party ones)
• used biodegradable plates made from sugarcane
• served drinks from large containers in compostable paper cups (no juice boxes)
• used a marker to write names on the cups in hopes of reducing quantity
  
• chose a durable, reusable party favor (found cute little lunch containers at the Daiso store and put a homemade cookie inside)
• reused the '3' birthday candle we saved from previous use
• made organic cupcakes
• reused large, heavy paper from a project to be table covers on the picnic tables

There were other things I could have done, but didn't. For instance:

• online invitations
• beeswax birthday candles (regular candles are often a petroleum based product)
• brought cloth napkins and 'real' plates and dishes
  
• brought cloth table covers (wouldn't need to be fancy - just reusable)
  

Things I did knowing they were not green, but was desperate:

• bought a mylar balloon to decorate
• also decorated with some streamers, but they are old rolls that have lasted us years and are still not used up!
  
• bought store cupcakes in plastic containers after the organic ones I baked failed miserably (I baked them in ice cream cones to be cute, but the cones fell apart in the oven)
• offered Wet Ones wipes to help keep hands clean
  
• took plastic bags at the store to carry my cold, heavy bags of ice to the car

The kids had a great time and no one thought the paperware was unfestive. Almost everything we served was compostable, so that was very easy. A happy birthday overall.