This weekend we celebrated my son's 2nd birthday with a Beach Ball Birthday Bash! If you have been following me on my facebook you'll know the struggles I was having trying to find beach ball party themed decorations. In my head I pictured this being an easy peasy theme - just go into any store: Target, Walmart, Party City, Hobby Lobby, Joann's, etc and grab all the supplies I needed: Swimsuits, plates, decor, scrapbook paper, material and ribbon - NOPE! Nada! Zippo! Seriously?????
I was flabbergasted - YES FLABBERGASTED that I was unable to find anything - not even a t-shirt! Maybe I was a month too early for "summer themed" party items ....at least that's what I told myself. But alas - I found a few items, which not all stores carried. I had to go to a specific Hobby Lobby and a specific Dollar Tree in order to find a few items. (ie: cupcake toppers, napkins, gift bag) The rest I had to get creative and make! (Party City did have a few beach ball items and then Actual Beach Balls too!)
Invitations: I had seen on pinterest an idea where they had an invitation printed on a balloon and then when you blew it up you could see all the details. I thought that was such a fantastic idea and wanted to do that on a beach ball. I loved the invites but two things I learned:
(1) The mini beach balls I ordered off Amazon that I thought would all be beach ball colored (red, yellow, blue) actually came as a variety pack - including ones that were yellow with happy faces !! AHHH! Good thing I ordered extra
(2) Shipping was horrendous! I weighed them and stamped them accordingly (just two stamps a piece) BUT! They were returned to me stating they needed an additional $1.60 on each!!!! (WHAT??? OVER TWO DOLLARS TO SHIP MY INVITES?????) I went down to the post office and they stated because they didn't sit flat that they had to be considered a package not an envelope....I almost cried (ok, I actually did tear up when trying to discuss this with the postal office) and unwillingly ended up paying the additional money to ship them :-( .... it was not a fun day, but I figured it would be more money for me to recreate a new invite and reship them........ still not happy about that situation
Beach Ball plate decor: This idea came to me while strolling the aisles of Target. I saw stacks of colored plates and while being discouraged that I still couldn't find any beach ball decor I thought how cute it would be to cut the plates and create my own "vintage" looking beach ball decor. I cut half-moons out of each of the plates and then glued them accordingly on a full plate. Then added a white circle to the top and voila! Beach Ball decorations. I ended up using them as garland, hanging them with fishing line. (To pierce the plates I used a thumbtack and then fished the line through)
Beach Ball Foam Balls: This idea I snatched up from PINTERST: From Studio DIY. I glued these to wooden skewers and used as decor, as well as sliced a potion of three of them, slide in a label (for dessert, drinks and pizza) then placed them in a cup filled with brown sugar.
Beach Ball Desserts: The cake and cupcakes I made. For the cake I baked a round cake using a cake mold, then frosted it with homemade buttercream and decorated with red, yellow, blue & white m&m's.
Cupcakes were also homemade and then topped with homemade buttercream colored with Duff's Color Gel's (which I HIGHLY recommend) and topped with a little brown sugar for sand and a cupcake topper from Hobby Lobby.
The cookies - ----- SERIOUSLY??!! THOSE COOKIES WERE SOOOOO STINKIN CUTE!!! My mom surprised me with them from a lady in her town. All mom did was show her one picture of Hank in his shirt and she went from there. They are A-MAZ-ING! And she just does them for a hobby! So happy to have had them at Hanks Party.
Kids shirts: Once again, I couldn't not find ANYTHING with a beach ball on it ---- At that point I would have even made the kids where sweatshirts if I found one with a beach ball on it! Crazy. So I ended up deciding I'd just paint shirts for the kids myself.
Jello Pool: Made blue jello and then topped off with little candies that looked like beach balls. I was inspired by a few jello cakes I've seen with Teddy Graham's floating in the pool.
Lollypops: I printed off some beach balls and taped them to lollypops for the kiddos.
Ice Cream: My parents own an ice cream parlor in Wickenburg, AZ and it's only fitting that we ALWAYS have homemade ice cream at any event. Well! My mom and dad created adorable beach ball ice cream's that we included with each cupcake. So super cute!
Punch: For the punch I chose red punch, blue koolaid and yellow lemonade. Each had a themed pool tag on them that I created with the names of: Sunburnt Punch (Red) , Pool Water (Blue) , Don't Pee In The Pool (Yellow) and an alcoholic one titled: "No Lifeguard On Duty."
Fruit Push Up Pops: Made fruit push up pops using the themed colors of blue, red and yellow. (Pineapple, blackberries and strawberries).
Little Extra's: We had a ton of beach balls all around the pool and house. I also blew up a little floaty tube, filled the center with sand and then placed mini sunblocks in them for the kiddos. Bought blue flannel material that resembled pool water for our table cloths. Oh yes, took a garage sale sign from Dollar Tree and recreated it into the "Pool Time" sign. I also used a beach ball from a gift bag I bought from Dollar Tree as a decor on the sign. Used my easel from IKEA to create a welcome sign with facts about Hank on it. (Saw that idea on Pinterest) And I think that covers it all.
Enjoy the pics!
