• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Bainbridge Island
  • Books & Writing
  • Crafts & DIY
  • Food
  • Life
  • Our Wedding Cookbook
  • Printables
  • Nav Widget Area

A Mom's Year

Creating a comfortable life one moment at a time

August 3, 2012

Lily’s Birthday Party / “Ice Cream” Balloons and Cake

I’m finally posting photos from Lily’s birthday party! She celebrated turning eight with some of her closest friends, a little swimming, and lots of ice cream.

I stuck with our usual plan for parties, which is to try to come up with a few really fun ideas and then keep everything else very, very simple.

When I saw these “ice cream” balloons I thought they’d be perfect for Lily’s ice cream party. They’re from Martha Stewart, so I should have known they wouldn’t be as simple as they look! It turns out that it takes some finesse to get the cones sized exactly right so they don’t sink the balloons. You can see one that’s beginning to sink, and the party hadn’t even started yet.

But they’re so cute they were worth the trouble. We used brown kraft paper, regular balloons, string, and a helium tank from Target. You might have better luck getting the balloons to stay up if you splurge a little on larger balloons from a party store.

Check out the cake that Grammy made! My mom is such a good sport—I e-mailed her the link to One Charming Party’s cake and she did a brilliant job replicating it. And the ganache she made to look like melting ice cream was so incredibly good! You can’t go wrong with heavy cream and chocolate.

Since we were learning about Australia that week, we made fairy bread for the girls to nibble on as they arrived. After they played in the Wishy-Wash and swam for a bit, we made homemade ice cream. It’s so easy to do and kids always love it. But it’s definitely an outdoor activity!

For dinner we gave them pizza and watermelon. Easy. And while Lily opened her gifts, I set up the sundae bar. There are lots of great printables out there if you want to set up a truly fancy sundae bar. I, however, used up all my energy on the ice cream balloons and favors so we had a very basic sundae bar. One thing that’s worth mentioning, though, is that if you need a way to make a little sign stand up, stick it in some play dough. Works like a charm.

I put out a couple of different kinds of ice cream and a bunch of different toppings: crushed oreos, gummi bears, white chocolate chips, cherries, pecans, chocolate syrup, butterscotch syrup, and whipped cream. We let the girls help themselves and, after they’d enjoyed their cake and ice cream, we let them loose to play some more until their parents arrived.

Next up: favors and games.

 

 

 

 

 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Kid Activities, Parties Shannon 1 Comment

Reader Interactions

Road Trip Travel Packs from Polkadot Prints
Mug of Wisdom #36

Trackbacks

  1. A Mom's Year » Lily’s Birthday Party / Favors and Games says:
    August 7, 2012 at 8:12 pm

    […] Grammy’s melting ice cream cone cake was the highlight of Lily’s party, but I think these ice cream container favors from One Charming Party were a close second. […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Welcome

Hello! My name is Shannon Taylor. I'm a long-time writer and editor from Minnesota surprised to find myself on an island in the Pacific Northwest. I'm sharing this adventure with my husband, four kids, and two dogs. I “published” my first newsletter when I was nine, and I’ve loved sharing ideas, stories, and information ever since. I hope you find something here to inspire you and help you create a comfortable, cozy life.
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Email

Instagram

The Rock at BHS The Rock at BHS

Featured Posts

  • Personalized Valentine Portraits
  • Short Fiction: Claire (A Valentine Story)
  • Valentine Fill-in-the-Blanks
  • 3-D Lollipop Valentines
  • Hanging Hearts-on-a-String Valentine
  • Caped Cute-saders Valentines
  • How to Host a Chinese New Year Party
  • Make: Double Happiness Symbol for Chinese New Year
  • Chinese New Year / Fortune Cookies
  • Chinese New Year Cookies

Fiction

Fiction

Comforting as a big mug of cocoa in front of a warm fire, this cozy family novel is about the connections we make and the traditions that keep us together.

Archives

© 2021 Happy Crow Enterprises, LLC
About    Privacy Policy    Copyright
Pretty Happy WordPress Theme · By: Pretty Darn Cute Design