As you know, I love a good theme, so when Reagan said she wanted an ice cream themed birthday party I was totally on board! When planning a birthday party, or any party for that matter, I try to break it into categories. This makes the party planning easier and less stressful. For this party, which I was hosting at our home, I needed: food, beverage, entertainment, decorations, and invitations.
Food:
Since it is summer and very hot, I decided to go really simple with deli meat sandwiches as the main course and then a bunch of sides. I catered the sandwich from the local grocery store which saved me a TON of time. Then I just picked little chip bags, some cold salads, fruit assortment, veggie tray, and cupcakes. I main dessert, however, was an ICE CREAM TRUCK! We have a truck that visits our neighborhood regularly and will show up at a party if you give them a date and location. It was a huge hit with the kids AND parents.
Beverages:
Again, nothing crazy here. We stocked the fridge and a cooler outside with beer, water, and juice. This way a cold beverage was readily available no matter where guests chose to hang out.
Entertainment:
This is my favorite part! Since it was a large party and I knew I wouldn’t be able to set up focused activities to do with the kids. I kept things super simple, but fun. First, I rented a bounce house from our local rental dealer. Of course, I went with the Frozen one to keep in theme 🙂
In the toy room, I set up a little pretend ice cream parlor and let the kids make pretend sundaes. I just used balled up tissue paper for ice cream, cut up straws for sprinkles, and red pom-poms for cherries. This was another favorite activity.
Finally, I put out the water table, a tub of sensory rice (which looked like sprinkles), and a cardboard ice cream truck that the kids could color and play in.
Decorations:
I ordered a few little things from Oriental Trading and picked up everything else from either Party City or the Dollar Tree. This is something I don’t usually spend much money or time on.
Invitations:
I decided to “Go Green” this year and use a digital invitation. I created them on Greenvelope. It did cost a little to send through this company, but I loved all the choices for customizing the card.
Overall, it was a great party and we had about 60 people attend. And, over half of them were kids under the age of 5! Everyone said they had a great time, especially the birthday girl!