A year ago I became a mom for the first time to a little boy who has changed my life in so many wonderful ways. I wanted to throw him a party with a theme around something he loves: plastic balls. You know the ones found in ball pits? He loves them, so it inspired me to create a party theme around it.
I decided to keep it small, with just a few family members, which turned out perfect because he cried by the time we brought the cake out to sing him happy birthday!
Invitation to have a ball!
The invitation design was simple as I was only sending it to family members. I've changed my son's name (in case he might get embarrassed later in life) but the design is the same.
Food in our bellies
Playing into the ball theme I made Vietnamese inspired chicken-balls, Baked Orange Chicken-balls, sweet bacon-wrapped meatballs (recipe after photo below), mini cheese balls and cake balls (of which I won't refer to the latter again since they were a major fail! I just couldn't get the candy melts to cover the cake balls properly). Here is a photo of the bacon-wrapped meatballs because anything bacon-wrapped is delicious (if you eat pork of course). These were all served with a bed of rice and salad. In retrospect, I would have grilled some bell peppers on the BBQ to add some colour to the meal.
Sweet Bacon wrapped meatballs (sort-of) recipe
For the bacon-wrapped meatballs I basically made it up as I went along. I had some pre-made meatballs on hand (the ones you can buy at the grocery store), which I defrosted, then I cut some bacon into thirds and wrapped the bacon around the meatballs. I pinned them in place with toothpicks (can use pretzel sticks instead if you'd like) and placed them in a baking dish. I mixed enough butter and brown sugar together (about 1/4 cup melted butter to 1/2 cup brown sugar) to coat them, and then placed them in the oven at 350 degrees for 45 mins. You can add a pinch of cayenne pepper for some kick if you're a little more adventurous.
I left the sauces on the side so people could choose which sauce they'd like to put on their meatballs. The orange marmalade sauce that comes with the baked orange chicken-balls is very spicy! If you like a less heat, reduce the amount of red pepper flakes the recipe calls for by at least half (or more if you're a wimp like me!).
For the little lad's smash cake I bought the Wilton mini-ball cake pan from Amazon.ca to make the three balls. I baked my Nana's decadent chocolate cake (I haven't found anything as good as it yet), and then let them cool. I may share the recipe at a later date, but at this point it's a family secret... shhh! Using my go-to buttercream recipe from Savory Sweet Life and food colouring, I iced them using a simple rustic style. To hold the cakes together, I first iced the middles and then attached them. After that, I iced the top half first, then flipped it over so the iced part was on the platter, then I iced the other half. Voila! Nothing fancy, but my one-year old was not in the mood by the time the cake came out so it didn't really matter. See the candle impression on the top of the blue one? This was after the crying ensued and he left the table with the cake untouched. We tried again later but to no avail. Oh well, it was worth a try!
Free Cake!
For those with a Thrifty's grocery store nearby, did you know they give free slab cakes for one-year-old birthdays? My sister-in-law told me about it and it was a great decision! We chose to get the chocolate version and it did not disappoint. I wish I got a picture of it, but we ate it before I thought to bring the camera out. Perhaps we'll get a photo when we do it for the next kid, whenever that is. The only downside is they don't really allow you change anything on it, other than putting "Happy Birthday (Name)" on it. It was cute nonetheless. (Note: apparently other people have been able to wrangle changes to the cake, so hopefully you can get the right person when you go!)
Decorations
One perk to having a birthday in June is being able to eat outside! We had just recently moved into our first home a few weeks before our little lad was born, so over the year we've slowly added new items to the home. Our favourite purchase this year so far has been our patio set. Now we can eat outside in the glorious shade and warm heat!
I purchased a balloon bouquet from the newly opened Party City in Langley, BC. I had checked out other smaller balloon stores, but Party City was the cheapest for the foil helium balloons. I had all the coloured balloons perfectly tied and staggered, but the wind created this jumbled bouquet set you see in the photo. It still looked okay, and my OCD self had to let it go.
Now onto the "wall balls" as I like to call them. Following the design style of the invitation, I created a string of "balls" to put up on our big vacant wall in our dining room. It said "Happy 1st Birthday (Name of Little Lad)!" I didn't have any cardstock paper on hand, so I sent them to Staples to be printed. I cut them out manually, taped them onto some thick brown string, then hung them up using little clear wire Command hooks. I love using the Command hooks or strips to hang anything up in my house. I strongly dislike holes in my walls because it'd mean that I'd have to patch up and paint it. Who has time for that anymore?!
I also added coloured circles to our front door and the wall in a polka-dot theme to add an overall fun element to the house. Instead of balloons, the "balls" on the front door were a small and easy way to let our guest know that this was the party house!
I knew all of the work to do this was worth it when I brought the birthday boy down after his nap and a big smile crept upon his face when he saw the sign. It was in that moment that I realized why parents will do whatever it takes to make their children happy, even if it's something as simple as a wall of "balls"! (Note: we still have the sign up and our son is learning his colours by pointing out the different balls.)
For the rest of the decorations, I went to a party store called Turkey's Party Makers in Cloverdale, B.C. and purchased items using the colours in the balls: small green and large blue paper plates, red cups, red polka dot paper straws, yellow table cloth, purple napkins, and orange cutlery. Having all the colours make it seem like a... birthday party - perfect! It's a great store with lots of great supplies for different types of parties - engagement, wedding, anniversaries, birthdays, holidays, etc.
Now is the moment you've all been waiting for...
Download your own ball party prints!
Here's the good news! Since this is my first official post on my new website and blog, I wanted to give you a free download of the wall balls to decorate your own ball themed birthday party! I'd love to see what you do with it! Use the hashtag #WallBallsParty and we can all relish in the party awesomeness with you!
What's included:
- Small ball circles in each of the seven colours
- Large ball circles in each of the seven colours
- "Happy Birthday" circles with polka-dot background
- Numbers (i.e. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 1, 2, 3)
- Alphabet and punctuation (only print the pages with the letters you need)
Each of these can be printed at home or at a print shop, i.e. Staples. I recommend they be printed on card-stock, or at least on heavy paper.
If you would like me to make any changes to the design (i.e. colours, font, sizing, etc.), I'm open to making the alterations for a small fee. Message me with the details and we'll sort it out!
I hope you enjoyed your gift today! Have a wonderful summer.