"Let's Have a Ball" Birthday Party!

Last month, I posted about my attempt to have a "Greener" birthday party.  However, I never actually posted about the party itself!  I wanted something fun and simple so went with "Let's Have a Ball!"

Invites:

Here's the picture I sent out with the message "Archer is having a BALL! ROLL on over and BOUNCE this way! It's time to celebrate his first birthday! Join us for food, cake and some outdoor fun!"

Decorations:

Xander decorated the marker board for us.

I used fitted sheets for reusable table cloths and decorated with a vase of ball pit balls.

I made this "ball" birthday banner, which I plan to reuse for other birthdays (I can share the PDF if anyone is interested).

I also made a banner of all pictures I took with his monthly milestone blocks.

Food:

I wanted all the food to be spherical, but decided I just wasn't a fan of meatballs. For the main course, we did pulled pork sandwhiches, but I had lots of spherical sides.  We had apples and oranges, grapes (with a knife to cut in half), blueberries, cheese balls, Poppable chips (which a lot of people thought were Chex cereal, but ended up liking once they tried), M and Ms, and cereal bars.  I used the Red, White and Blue Captain Crunch instead of Rice Crispies. (The open spot in the middle was for a tray of veggies, including cherry tomatoes.  They were just still in the fridge).

For dessert, I did cupcakes and round sprinkles. The smashcake was a giant cupake (I explain how I made it and the liner here)

Activities:

We set up a lot of outdoor activities (since we had a big outdoor lawn party for our wedding reception, we have lots of outdoor games and most of the toys were things we had). We had out a parachute and some GIANT polka dot beach balls (Easter basket gifts).  Xander set up the stepping domes into a path (while Archer crawled along behind him and threw them all).

I set up a baby pool with lots of ball pit balls.

Not quite ball themed, but we also set up the giant connect 4, bags and ladder ball.

 

I also had out this tub of I got these little knobby balls for the kids, which were also the party favors.  The sign said "Thanks for BOUNCING by my party!  Take one so you can have a BALL at home!" They ended up thrown all over (and have a been a big hit in our house since).  

 The Outfit:

I got  this adorable polka dot shirt I got from BowDacious Baby on Etsy. We all wore raglan shirts to match (because I'm THAT mom, haha).