Basketball B-day Party

Although it is easier in my opinion to sew for girls, I think that throwing b-day parties is easier when you have boys. At least my boy doesn't seem to need much.

Yesterday was my 8 year old's birthday party and his request was a basketball party--which meant walking down to our park, only 5 houses away, and playing basketball with some of his friends, a pizza lunch, and cake. What could be easier than that?

However, I did have to "embellish" a little. After all, we only throw "friends invited" birthday parties at our house every other year. (To save the sanity of the mother.) Here are a couple things that I did for him and his 6 friends:

First, check out your local dollar stores. Sometimes you can score big on party favor items. To go along with our theme we bought orange plates/napkins, soda, and some basketball water balls, and other little candies, along with the little sports theme treat bags.

Cost: About $6 for the treat bags/items

I made water bottle holders for the boys out of some fun basketball ribbon I found on sale at Michaels. These just snap down over the lip of the water bottle and don't easily come off.

This is so you can see what you are looking for when you head to the hardware store.

Click here for the tutorial on how to make these from the Family Fun magazine. This shows a no-sew project, however, I just sew the ends closed on the ribbon--easier and cheaper for me personally. Our families have made these a number of times over the years--so easy and so helpful to keep track of your own water bottle. I let the boys just write their name on the ribbon portion with a fabric marker so they knew which one belonged to them. Otherwise at our house I usually let my kids pick their own ribbon and that is how they distinguish theirs from anyone else's bottle.

Cost: about$1.12 per water bottle and holder combined

*2 - spools ribbon at $1.99 each for 5 yds.

*7 - O rings at $.49 each

*24 ct. water bottles at $2.98--that's $.13 per bottle

Also at Michaels I bought a t-shirt for each boy (when they were on sale for $1.99/ea) and then ironed on numbers on the back and a basketball logo on the front of each one. I had the fabric markers ready for them if they wanted to sign each other's shirts, but we didn't get around to it or they forgot. I probably should've had them at least signed the birthday boy's shirt. Oh well...

Birthday boy on the right!
The crew on the court.

Cost: per shirt about $2.50

Pizza: $22

Total cost for party: around $50

He was happy and I think all the boys he invited had a fun time too. That's ONE down and 4 more to go this year!! Stay tuned for our Garden Party for the 6 year old here in a couple weeks.