My son turned 8 at the beginning of June. I always have a birthday party for my children and invite friends and family. For some reason, birthday parties totally stress me out. I always tend to spend way too much money on supplies, I worry that no one is going to show up, and I worry that my child isn't going to like their party. I know some parents do small family gatherings for birthdays which is a great idea. I started out having parties with friends and family usually at a kid friendly place and have had a few at my house. I have often wished that I just kept it small family gathering and just served cake. I have learned that it is less stressful for me to have them somewhere plus if it is at my home they are usually planned outside and I have to worry about the weather.
This year I feel like I saved so much money. After my son decided that he wanted to have an indoor pool party at our local civic center, we picked a theme. To me, every birthday party has to have a theme. The theme this year was beach balls. I spotted these cute plates and napkins at Dollar Tree a few days before we decided on a theme so I had to go back purchase them.
While I was at the Dollar Tree I spotted these cute beach ball cups. I purchased 8 of these to be used as party gifts for guests.
I also found this beach ball theme strings that are made to be hung but I used them to decorate the tables. The tablecloths were also at Dollar Tree. They match the plates and napkins. The birthday hat in the center of the table I already had.
The cake and cupcakes were purchased at Walmart. I found a picture of a beach ball online and they used that to make the cake. They already had the cupcake toppers. I think they both turned out great.
Then of course my Pinterest addiction came in handy. I found these great ideas for punch and food. I loved using the sand buckets. The buckets matched the colors in the beach ball. I found the small sand toy for the pickles. Each sand bucket with shovel and sand toy was only $1 at Dollar Tree. The cute plastic tongs shown in the picture with the pickles were $1 for a pack of 4. Pickles were seaweed, chips were waves, cheese balls were beach balls, bugles were seashells and the punch was pool water. I made the labels using card stock and a blue ink pad. I cut the card stock and then randomly slid the ink pad across it. I then just wrote the themed food items with a blue ink pen. I thought they turned out cute. All these ideas were from Pinterest.
Then I had a table set up for the kids take one or two items for their gifts. The tables consisted of beach ball cups, pineapple cups, palm tree cups, water guns, jello pool cups, and beach themed candy.
Of course, these ideas came from Pinterest too. I found all the cups at Dollar Tree. I already had the water guns. (These were used during the party and then each child was able to take one home. They were a huge hit.) I made the jello pool cups and they turned out so cute. The themed candy was found at the Dollar Tree too and so were the small sand buckets. Life savers were floats, licorice was pool noodles, gum balls were beach balls and were life savers. I also had candy bags for each child to make their own bag to take home with them.
I also purchased 6 beach balls at the Dollar Tree and threw them into the pool for the kids to play with.
The party was a huge success! I loved how everything turned out. The theme was one of my favorites so far. I had so many compliments. The best compliment was from my son. He told me that I gave the best parties ever. He was very thankful for everything.
