Birthdays are a big deal in our house! I love celebrating people that I love for all they are! I love making them feel special and loved, and I love any excuse to do crafts, decorate and host a party!
From finding just the right gift, to making a cake and decorations, to seeing the happy smiles on people’s faces, I love birthdays! It’s not hard for kids to like their birthdays, but I’d be lying if I said I am not thrilled that my sweeties love the process of planning their own birthdays as well as surprising others as much as I do!
I love that they think of each other and what they can make or give to each other. Not just the gift, but the selfless thought that they put into bringing joy to others and their pure happiness from putting a smile on someone else’s face (not to mention the smile they put on my face as we enjoy spoiling each other together).
This year my 12 year old athlete realized she had never had any kind of a sport birthday! She decided that she wanted to celebrate all of her favorites at once: volleyball, soccer, softball, and basketball with a little football and baseball added in! She designed her cake and spent hours upon hours on Pinterest and in my craft room working on ideas and making decorations. Here is what she pulled together!
FOOD
The cake was designed to be a quarter of each of her favorite sports and has a frosting grass boarder around the bottom.
Mini bags of chips were displayed on a fun tray.
We created a popcorn bar with candy corn, M&M’s, and flavored seasonings. Paper cones were created with 8×10 sheets of paper to hold each person’s popcorn creation. An upside down wire basket is a unique way to display the cones. Similar ones can usually be found on the cheap at dollar stores.
For beverages, we served sports drinks in a bucket of ice.
We served the cake shown above to all of our extended family on Sunday, but served these super easy and fun cupcakes to her friends Friday night. We iced the cupcakes with a grass tip and topped with edible sport decor.
Decorations
This is how my daughter decorated her snack table! She made the confetti by using a round paper punch. She printed the soccer balls and volleyballs from a simple image she found and then paper punched the images out. The basketballs and softballs were free hand.
We always open presents by the fireplace, so she had to make sure it was decked out! The sport balls on the sides of the fireplace and chains on the mantle are all freehand, with the chains being decorated like basketballs, softballs, and volleyballs. There are free printables for football, base/softball, and basketball chains at this link.
Locker room signs were made to go on every bathroom door!
She created her own birthday banner!
She created about 10 of these signs with sport balls and famous sport quotes.
Party Fun
In addition to hiding in my daughter’s room, like tweenie boppers do, the kids played volleyball, chattered and were full of shenanigans. Everyone’s favorite activity though was the selfie station! We have hundreds of pictures of my daughter, her besties and our family acting like complete goofballs together!! It served as entertainment and documented the whole birthday! Some of these pictures may come in handy at future fun events!!
To keep as a reminder of each of my kids birthdays we create a scrapbook page that all of the guests sign. It helps us remember who celebrated with us and it has been fun to watch the kid’s handwriting change throughout the years!
Happy Planning!
