Sports Birthday Party

We had my son's 6th birthday party this last weekend. He kept saying that he wanted to have his party at one of those Bounce house places (where all the kids run around and jump on the inflatables). I wasn't too thrilled with the idea because how in the world was I supposed to put all my decorative little touches on everything??

I convinced him to have the party in our back yard again (we did this cool army party last year and the kids still talk about it). He agreed, but only after I said I was going to paint our entire backyard like a football field! Score! I got my way... :)

Here's a shot of 50 yard line of the field.... (the K is for our last initial).

The snack table was loaded up with all kind of ballpark goodies. Cupcakes that I decorated like basketballs, soccerballs, footballs and baseballs. Oreo truffles decorated like footballs (these were good and went fast!), tons of hot dogs wrapped in foil (ballpark style), bags of chips, popcorn, peanuts, twizzlers, chocolates and bubblegum and sunflower seeds.

{The two tier metal bucket was a find from Hobby Lobby and I found the cool popcorn buckets at the Dollar Tree! Love them!}

The kids did some relay races (spin on the bat &, carry the ping pong ball on a spoon down the field and back), some bean bag tosses, throwing contests, stick the ball on the target which was left over from last years army party (played like pin the tail on the donkey), a homerun derby and we had a pinata for the kids to swing at! We had several other games on our list, but actually ran out of time.

The invites were made in Photoshop and just printed on white cardstock. I used papers and elements from this Game On Digital Scrapbooking Kit from Sweet Shoppe Designs.

I actually used the balls from this kit also for the target game and also for labels for all the food etc.

  It was such a fun and easy party to put together! Perfect for all those sports fanatics!

A&J

Cake Pops and More....

Cake balls are becoming quite popular and are a great alternative for little party snacks. I've taken Bakerella's idea of putting them on a stick. You can visit her website for much much more on these and more recipes.

These are ones I made for a little Easter party. They were strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting and covered in these cute little colorful egg sprinkles I found.

These are my little different take on the cake pop. I had these little tool sugar shapes I wanted to use, so I found a silicone brownie bite mold and made them into little squares. I made chocolate and yellow cakes and then mixed some of them together for marbled pops (These were my favorite!). Covered some in milk chocolate and some in dark chocolate and added the sugar shapes on top. Great alternative to carrying a big cake to a party.

Here are some pics I took of the steps along the way.

And the finished product! These do take a little bit of time, but will be worth it as everyone raves about them. Next, I'd like to try the Oreo and white chocolate cake balls. They sound very yummy!

Recipe:

• Your favorite cake mix
• Your favorite tub of frosting
• Chocolate wafers or almond bark
• Lollipop sicks
• Optional: sprinkles, decorations etc
  

Prepare the cake mix as directed on box. After it is cooled, you can slice off the top (as it's not as pretty to have browned pieces in your cake pops). Dig out all of the middle of the cake and put into a bowl. The cake should crumble very easily. Then add the frosting to the cake and mix together. I would start with about 2/3 of the tub, then add more if it seems dry. Start shaping into balls place in the freezer for about 20 minutes to chill and make them easier to work with. You can add the stick into the ball, dip into the melted chocolate, and decorate. Get creative! Keep chilled in the refrigerated until used.

A&J