the essence

Ice Cream Social Birthday Party

On Saturday (yes, my birthday) we celebrated Clay's first birthday with an ice cream social. I thought the theme was very appropriate for our very hot Florida summers & it was also very easy!

I believe the invitation sets the tone for your party so, of course, we had to have ice cream cone invitations. These were an easy print, cut & put together with paper I already had at home.



I went with the colors blue & green to carry the theme through the party. This was also really cheap. For the banners I used scrapbook paper that I've had for years. I found a font I liked & printed out the letters I needed, cut them out leaving a white border & glued them to the scrapbook papers.






The table with all of the delicious ice cream toppings. Did I mention how easy this was? Barely any food prep & super yummy!






For the table pieces around the party I made pinwheels in the party colors. I used bamboo skewers (already in my kitchen drawer) to hold the pinwheel. Some of the metal planters I already had, some I bought at IKEA for just $3 each and I used floral foam to hold the pinwheels in place.



I used the same paper from the pinwheels to make cards with the names of the toppings on them. I used the same font as was used for the banners.



The best part? All of that paper only cost $2!

Along with the ice cream we also had some hors d'œuvres - spinach dip , olive tapenade, hummus & cheese.




Instead of a cake I made individual ice cream cone cakes.






For Clay's smash cake I just made a little cupcake. When we lit the candle to sing him happy birthday Clay started crying & crying. I guess the Pflug fire gene skipped him!

There are no picture of Clay "smashing" the cake - he just picked the whole thing up & started eating it!



Clay really loved the cake, though, & ate the entire thing - minus what ended up on his clothes! He needed a bath before he could open presents.






Ah, yes, the very awkward time when I have to open all of the presents for the boy. I feel so self-conscious opening gifts in front of people! Check out Clay, though, he seems to be digging his new clothes!



The kids also played "Pin the Cherry on the Sundae." Simple, cute & fun. The winner got to make their sundae first. The sundae & cherries were made out felt from the craft store & applied to another one of those sheets of scrapbook paper (I knew I kept it all for a reason!)




Ruthie didn't want to play but wanted her Auntie Chris to go in her place. Chris was a good sport - especially with her brother-in-law flicking her ear as she was spun around!



While there are a plethora of fabulous things to do for favors for an ice cream party, I stuck to the secondary theme of this party (cheap!) & made these little "ice cream cones" for the kids. I rolled more scrapbook paper into cone shapes, stuffed them with balloons & blew up water balloons with the pump (regular balloons were too big) & taped them into the top of the cone for the "ice cream" portion.







Finally, I made sure to get a photo of every guest in front of the photo backdrop (I used another one of these for the background of the toppings table). And, yes, there's more of that $2 worth of paper I bought. I used the scraps to make a mini banner - nothing goes to waste!

You know, I see photos of other families with multiple young children & they're "picture perfect." We don't seem to be one of those families. And, out of all of the photos that were taken of us, this is as good as it gets. (And, it's the only one where Ray had his eyes open!)