Food Prep Idea for Kids Birthday Parties

Kids parties can be hard to handle. Kids running everywhere. I have been at many young kids parties this year and just saw a few things that didn't work so well.
For example, young children don't know how much food to take. They get excited and grab way more than they need or will ever eat ending up wasting most of it because they want to play anyway.
I have also seen parents circle the table with bowls of chips handing out food constantly the whole party while children bark out demands for more. Running around getting serving food makes it hard to control the group of children as well.

I wanted to avoid being tied down to the table during the party and wanted to be free to take pictures and enjoy myself too, so I came up with this time saving proactive idea.

I grabbed all the serving trays we had at our house, if you don't have trays you can use cookie sheets. I prepped correct portions sizes in little plastic cups and placed them on the tray. Then I took the tray and placed it in the middle of the table. At my daughter's last party we did three things involving food. Cookie wands, Pizza making, and of course eating. I had everything set to go so children only needed to take one of each cup if they wished to have it. If a child didn't care for carrots they didn't need to take the cup with carrots in it. This worked really well and when they were done with their food project or eating their plates and empty cups went back on the tray making cleanup super easy and the table clear and ready for the next birthday activity. It does take a little prep work but the pay off to just relax and enjoy with easy clean up is more than worth it!