One of my son’s first words was ball. He has always loved balls and gets very excited every time he sees them. So, for his second birthday we made him a ball themed birthday party. With a baby on the way and feeling like we just finished with the holidays, I wanted to keep it simple. I also wanted to be able to make as much of it beforehand as possible. One exception to this was the decorations. I put them all up the night before, so that my son got the excitement of seeing it all at once this morning.
My son didn’t seem to notice any of the decorations at first. But, without us saying anything, he noticed a few minutes later. He excitedly started pointing out all the “ball balls”. It was definitely a successful theme for him. Keep reading to learn how I made all of his easy and fun ball themed food, activities, and decorations.
While this post outlines my son’s ball party, I am still working on more in depth posts on some aspects of the party. I will add links as I finish them up. Let me know in the comments if there is any specific project you want to know about and I will make it a priority.
How to DIY a Ball Themed Birthday Party
Invitations:
A party isn’t a party without guests, so before starting anything else, I made invitations. Once again I used postermywall. I found a fun ball invitation to start with and then added more balls of my own all over the invitation. You can choose to order them through their site or if you don’t mind a watermark print them yourself. I choose to print them on cardstock.
Ball Themed Food:
Cake
I have a tradition of making my kids’ cakes in the shape of the age they are turning with this cool cake pan. Last year, I made my son a castle cake in the shape of a 1 and my daughter an under the sea cake in the shape of a 3. So, my son’s ball themed birthday party cake needed to be in the shape of a number two. I made an Oreo flavored cake based on Life Love and Sugar’s recipe. Then, I put colorful Oreo cheesecake balls based on Lil Luna’s recipe on the top of it. More instructions coming soon.
Meatballs, Couscous, and Sauce
Pizza is my normal go to for birthday parties, but this time I wanted ball shaped foods. So, along with the foods I mention (and picture) later, I made meatballs, pearl couscous, and a sauce for it all.
First, I bought frozen meatballs that were easy to bake in the oven the day of the party. Next, I used my Instant Pot to cook my pearl couscous. With how my kitchen is set up, my stove is right next to where I wanted to serve the food. I used my Instant Pot to avoid anyone accidently burning themselves on a still hot stovetop. Lastly, I used Allrecipe’s recipe to make Swedish meatball sauce the day before the party. I skipped the step of adding the meatballs since I cooked them separately. Right before we ate, I just heated the premade sauce up in the microwave.
Cheese (and Pepperoni) Bombs
While I didn’t go the traditional pizza route, I did make cheese bombs using Home Cooking Adventure’s recipe. For half of them, I added pepperoni as well. To cut down on things I needed to do the morning of the party, I made them all a week beforehand and froze them unbaked. Then, I baked them the morning of the party. I added a few minutes to the bake time since they were frozen. To make them even easier, I heated up the butter sauce for the top in the microwave. And when a few people weren’t able to come last minute, I left some in the freezer that I can easily make any time.
Other Ball Food
Lastly, I put out some other ball shaped foods. Cheese balls, Oops All Berries Cap’n Crunch, blueberries, and grapes are all naturally ball shaped. I used a melon baller to add watermelon to the mix. My son’s favorite fruit is raspberries, so I also put them out even though they aren’t really that round.
Kool-Aid Ball Sprite
For a fun ball-themed drink, I used a sphere ice cube tray. I made a lot of spherical Kool-Aid ice cubes and placed them in a bowl of Sprite. Once again, I made the ice several days in advance to cut down on stress. The flavors mixed as the ice melted and I think that in the end it tasted kind of like an ICEE. More details to come.
Decorations for a Ball Themed Birthday Party:
Balloon Garland
It seems like balloon garlands have recently become quite popular. But they are also SUPER expensive, so I never even considered having one at one of my kid’s parties. But, while I was buying balloons (another spherical favorite of my son), I saw a balloon garland strip. I didn’t know quite how it worked, but it looked easier than putting balloons up on the wall individually. With a little help from YouTube, it was a lot easier than I expected and I am very happy with how it turned out. More details coming soon.
Dot Walls
To finish off my ball themed birthday party decorations, I wanted a simple way to add colorful balls to my walls. At first I was going to trace different bowls and cups and cut out a bunch of circles by hand. Then, I found this super cool circular paper cutter. I was able to quickly cut a bunch of different size circles from construction paper. To keep everything looking connected, I kept to a loose red, blue, green, and yellow color scheme. Since the walls in my dining room and kitchen are yellow, I only made red, blue, and green dots.
Polka Dot Tablecloth
I thought that finding polka dot party supplies would be easy. While some existed, like this polka dot tablecloth, I waited too long to order online. So, I painted polka dots on a white plastic tablecloth instead. This sounds much more tedious then it was. Learn all about my fun and easy method soon.
Cups and Utensils
Along with the tablecloths, I had a very hard time finding cups and utensils with polka dots. I was able to find a few, but not enough for everyone, so once again I made my own. This was much more tedious, but was a good excuse to just chill and watch something while I worked. Tips and tricks on how to polka dot your own cups and utensils coming soon.
Remaining Party Supplies
I was able to buy everything else I needed for my son’s ball themed birthday party. I bought these polka dot plates and napkins very similar to these.
Ball Birthday Activities:
Ball Scavenger Hunt
Over the summer, I made an outdoor scavenger hunt for my kids that was picture based. I tweaked this idea and made an indoor scavenger hunt for the kid party guests. I kept it picture based for the younger kids and made word based clues for the older kids. To avoid a stampede of children following each other, every child had a different clue order. But they all ended in the same place. To keep with the ball theme, I placed individual ball shaped pinatas containing ball party favors at the end. Instructions on how to make the scavenger hunt and ball pinatas coming soon.
Ball Pit
With mostly little kids, I knew that just placing out all of my kid’s existing balls would be a big hit. I put out two ball pit type enclosures and filled them with all of our ball pit balls and other random balls. This added a bit to the theme and gave the kids something to play with. It wasn’t a huge hit, but still worked well for its purpose. I guess I never got around to taking a picture of it.
Conclusion of My Son’s 2nd Birthday Ball Party
My two year old son had a ball! Now all he has to hear is the word two and he will start talking about balls. The scavenger hunt and the ball shaped foods were his favorites. All the other kids and adults seemed to enjoy themselves as well. Overall, this ball themed birthday party was easy to put together. Most of it was quick and fun with just a few exceptions (I’m looking at you forks and spoons). And, if you follow my tips and tricks, you can make almost everything ahead of time and enjoy a stress-free party day. What is your favorite ball themed birthday party item?
Make sure to check out the other fun birthday parties I have thrown for my kids.
