Sports Party

We had Tanner's 5th birthday party today. It was a "Sports Carnival" and the kids seemed to have a great time.

I had a lot of fun with all the little "details" for this party. About 3 weeks ago, I still hadn't decided on a theme for this year's party. And I am a big theme person!

Well, Target came to the rescue! I ran in one day to pick up a few things and of course I had to stop by the Dollar Section since it is right by the front doors and always calling my name. Lo and behold, they had a whole line of sports related party stuff. Even though it is the "Dollar" section, I am frugal. So, I probably would not have stopped except that it was all 50% off. Whohoo!! Even more exciting was when I checked out, it was actually 75% off!! Double Whohoo!! Of course, there were some things that I was waffling on at .50 but I had to go back and buy them since they were only a quarter!

And thus was born the sports party for Tanner's 5th birthday. Good thing the boy likes sports!

We started off with "craft" time. I love crafts and thus I often subject those around me to craft time! They made little sports flags with some VBS clearance items I found at Hobby Lobby. I made the flags from foam sheets and then the kids decorated them with the foam sports-related stickers. I punched holes in the sides of the flags for a dowel rod. Craft time only lasted about 10 minutes. I think I was hoping for longer...but these are 4 and 5 year olds so I should probably be happy with 10 minutes!








After they finished their flags, the carnival began. Every child was given a strip of tickets. They then went to each station, where they turned in their ticket for a chance to play. After playing at each station, they were able to pick out a prize for their goody bag.


We had four sports stations. Basketball - where they tried to get a basket in the hoop. Baseball - where they tried to hit a ball. Soccer - where they kicked the ball around some cones. And finally ladderball - throwing the balls onto the rungs. The last ticket was for popcorn - which was actually Cracker Jacks, even better!

Everyone had a lot of fun trying the different sports and thankfully I have a large family who was willing to help man the stations!
















Once we finished that, we had cupcakes decorated like baseballs and basketballs. I saw these online and they were super easy to make. I usually enjoy doing fun cakes - but I went for something a little easier this year!










After cupcakes, we opened presents. This year was the year of Legos - I think he got 8 different sets! Yikes!! I think I have spent about 3 hours today helping him assemble the various sets. My control-freak side meticulous, organized side is starting to twitch at the idea of keeping them separated and not mixed up. We had a talk before opening them about the importance of only working on one set at a time and keeping them in their respective bags. We will see how long that lasts!

All in all, it was a fun party - from organizing and planning it to actually enjoying it with my sweet Tanner and his friends!

Here are a few more fun "details" from the party.

Every kid had their own water bottle labeled with their name. It was super easy to do . I just made them on the computer and added some sports clip art. I then attached them to the bottles with packing tape.


For their goody bags, I found some reusable lunch bags in the Target clearance bonanza - for only .25! They had sport themed bags which I picked up for the boys, and some pink ones for the girls. I then customized them with everyone's initial. For the boys bags, I used orange and brown felt and for the girls bags I used some fabric scraps. I sewed the initials to the larger squares, and then used spray fabric adhesive to attach them to the bags. It actually went pretty fast - and I was very pleased with how they turned out. For less than .50 a bag, I was happy!!

Before:


After:







Happy Birthday Tanner! Still can't believe my baby is 5!!