Running a restaurant is no easy task — especially when your employees are 4–10 years old and easily distracted by balloons. To keep Bubba’s Pizzeria running smoothly, I set up a series of activity stations for each team to rotate through while they weren’t cooking or dining. These stations kept the kids engaged, entertained, and just the right amount of “on task.” Here’s how I set them up (and how you can, too!).

Station 1: Draw a Pizza

This one turned into a mini art gallery! I set out:
	•	Clipboards with plain printer paper
	•	Two packs of gel crayons (these were awesome!)
	•	A bowl of small clips and an instructional sheet
	•	A QR code linking to a kid-friendly YouTube pizza drawing tutorial

After completing their masterpieces, kids clipped their “pizzas” onto three yarn “clotheslines” I strung along the living room wall, creating a rotating Pizza Art Wall. At the end of the party, they collected their drawings to take home. The results were honestly frame-worthy.

Station 2: Plant a Pizza Garden

Because what’s a pizzeria without fresh ingredients? On a console table under the stairs, I set up:
	•	A bin of soil with plastic spoons for scooping
	•	Seed starter trays
	•	Spray bottle of water
	•	White garden markers + Sharpie for labeling
	•	A little green soil poking tool called a dibber which worked perfectly for making tiny seed holes
	•	Pre-portioned seed baggies labeled by team color (Seeds I used: Roma Tomatoes, Oregano, Basil, and Parsley.)

The kids planted their seeds, labeled everything, and tucked their trays onto the lower shelf until pickup. Bonus: I kept a mini vacuum handy for dirt spills and a step stool so little ones could reach. Zero mess stress!

And just to prove these little gardens really worked… here’s what they looked like two weeks later!

Station 3: Decorate Pizza Cookies

The sweetest station of all. Before the party, I baked sugar cookies and used my Cricut + an Etsy pattern to create mini pizza boxes. I lined each with checkered parchment and added my custom pizzeria logo to the front.  I used this extra large heavy weight cardstock to make the boxes.

For toppings, the kids used:
	•	Red frosting (“sauce”)
	•	Grated white chocolate (“cheese”)
	•	Chopped gummy bears (“veggies”)
	•	Brown and red M&Ms (“sausage” and “pepperoni”)

They decorated their “pizzas,” boxed them up, and had an edible souvenir to take home. Simple, fun, and totally adorable.

Station 4: Pizza Topping Toss

Sometimes, you just need a quick game. Enter: the Melissa & Doug Pizza Toss game (thank you, Amazon). I set it up on the stairs, and kids had five minutes each to toss toppings onto the “pizza” target. Short, sweet, and high-energy.

Station 5: Pizza Scavenger Hunt

This was the puzzle-solving moment of the party. I bought pizza-themed clipart on Etsy, printed and cut them out, and wrote one letter of the alphabet on each. Then I hid them all around the first floor.

The letters spelled: A W E I R D O U G H.

Kids grabbed an answer sheet and pencil, searched the house, and filled in the blanks. The riddle?
“What kind of person doesn’t like pizza?”
Answer: A WEIR-DOUGH.

Each team dropped their answer sheet in a custom box slot, and I tallied results at the end. Fun, easy, and a big laugh.

Timing It All Out

Each team rotated through the stations with about 10 minutes per activity (only 5 minutes for the Pizza Toss). This structure kept kids busy, gave them variety, and meant no one was ever sitting around waiting for their turn in the kitchen. It was smooth, organized chaos — just how I like it.

To give you a clearer picture of how the flow worked, here’s one of the actual team schedules we used that night:

Bubba’s Pizzeria Gift Shop

Every great pizzeria needs a gift shop, and Bubba’s was no exception. After “earning” $30 as a kitchen team ($15 per chef), our employees were invited to spend their hard-earned cash at the official Bubba’s Gift Shop.

The shop was stocked with dozens of treasures I’d collected over time — everything from bath blocks, puzzles, and chalk to sensory toys, jewelry, cookbooks, socks, and even adult drink mixers. Prices were marked with stickers to give it that real store feel, and guests were encouraged to shop the shelves until their cash was gone.

To keep it simple (and fun), the gift shop ran on the honor system: guests tallied up their own items, bagged them, and paid at a little “self-checkout” station. The room itself wasn’t heavily decorated — just a table loaded with goodies, a toy cash register to the side, and a GIFT SHOP sign with an OPEN/CLOSED sign at the door. It stayed closed throughout the party until the very end, when we flipped the sign and let the shopping spree begin.

It was the perfect finale — our young chefs walked out not just with full bellies but with bags of prizes to remember the day.

The activity stations were the glue that held Bubba’s Pizzeria together. They kept little hands busy, tied into the theme, and gave every “employee” a chance to shine outside the kitchen. If you’re planning a pizza party (or any role-play themed bash), consider mixing in a few stations like these.

DON’T stop the party here!

👉 Click here to read the full Bubba’s Pizzeria overview

👉 Click here to explore the 6 kitchen stations where guests worked their shifts