Make Your Own Ice Cream Party for Bubble's 10th Birthday Party

Well that's it. It's over. I blinked and this year Bubble was too old for a pretty ruffly party (#see disclaimer at bottom). It's ok I'm not bitter I did get 5 years worth of adorable parties out of her.

Party Evolution
6yr Fairy Party, 7yr Mermaid Party, 8yr Princess Party (photo's by Alyce Holzberger),  

9 yr pink and green ruffle party/cupcake decorating, 10 year ice-cream bar

Besides, we were never going to have a party this year. We have a big holiday planned so when I booked it in I told the kids firmly 'No parties this year!'

But we all know the parties are really for me, and so I didn't pay any attention to that firm voice. Sadly I also didn't pay enough attention to the passing days.

While I was having my inner debate, would we party or wouldn't we, was I going to cave and pay big bucks for one of those new trampoline-lazer tag superdooper fun places the decision was made. Procrastination was my enemy and my friend 'cause we all know leave it too late and the only time left to book in at one of those party places is early Sunday morning when none of the kids will be able to turn up anyway.

OK decision made do it at home on a budget but the problem was these kids are 10 years old boys and girls. It's a seriously hard crowd to please, I had no idea what to do.

Then while I was shopping I spied a couple of huge bottles of water balloons with 500 balloons in each for $8 and despite the fact it is the middle of winter here another decision was made. We live a few doors down from a park which is pretty quite mostly and it would be a perfect spot for the kids to have their crazy time * see cleaning up note below.

Then the real negotiations started. Bubble was adamant that as there were boys attending the party should not be pink, or pretty or ruffly.

I took a deep breath and decided to go all Disney on her.

Yup I let it go.

We decided to have a make your own ice-cream bar, which was a bit sad for me as no real baking or decorating but good for me too as no real baking and decorating. It was so relaxed in the lead up to the party.

Well pretty much super relaxed until I messaged my SIL about her daughter's birthday party which was about a week and a half away and found out that my niece's party was actually 3 days away and Bubble's party was 10 days away.

Anyhoo it all worked out in the end, Bubble was super happy surrounded by her friends, it was a lovely sunny day warm enough for the water play but cool enough the ice-cream did not melt and everyone seemed to have fun.

Party Food
As I said I was pretty relaxed and mostly everything was store bought with the exception of the macarons and chocolate chip cookies (for making ice-cream sandwiches). 

The most popular stuff was the popping candy and the cream filled wafers.

Menu:
Store bought Vanilla and Chocolate Ice-cream
Ice Cream Sundae Macarons (recipe/instructions to follow next week)
Sprinkles
Popping Candy
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Cream filled wafers
Caramel popcorn
Marshmallows
Waffle Cones
Lollipops (take home treat)
Whipped cream in a can
Maraschino Cherries
M and M's
Chocolate, Strawberry and Caramel sauce
Soft drink (Soda)

Party Table Details

Everything on the table was something I already had or borrowed with the exception of a few discount items as detailed below:

Center table/riser - that's my mint green stand covered in red polka dot wrapping paper.
Red and white polkadot buckets for ice-cream from Choice discount/dollar store $2.50 for a set of 3.
Mason jars with straws - from K-mart discount department store for $2 each. I decorated them with washi tape and chalkboard stickers I picked up from another discount/dollar store. I let the kids take these home if they wanted as part of their loot/treat bag.
Glitter Straws - I alternated straws - see how I made the glitter washi tape straws (See post HERE)

Lollipops - $1 each from Kmart. I stuck them in that pink stand I borrowed from my SIL's party and tied with a bit of red ribbon I had sitting around. They were part of the kids take home treats.
 

White dispenser - this is actually a cutlery holder I've had for a while - I picked it up at Mollegaarden HERE. Then I stuck on some of those chalkboard stickers.
Strawberry treat bags - Oh my how cute are these, they are from Paper Glitter CLICK HERE
White Cake Stands - the stands used were existing ones I have had for quite a few years
Chalkboard stands - $3 for a set of 3 from Shmick available at some discount stores or online
Red and white polkadot bowls - Greengate
Gold spoons - Christina Rae
Red baskets, hanging lanterns and gingham placemats borrowed from SIL similar available party or discount stores

Party Games

Photo booth - We started the party off with a homemade photo booth using an instant/Polaroid camera and dress ups we already had. Although it was fun it was a bit less successful than I thought it would be.  Maybe it's more of an end of the party thing, it took everyone forever to pick what they wanted to wear. It was good however to keep the kids occupied while everyone else was turning up.
Make your own Ice-cream bar - I'm calling this an activity as they kids got to make their own sundae or ice-cream soda or ice-cream sandwich or pretty much whatever.The kids enjoyed this, apparently whipped cream in a tin is big with 10 year olds.
Water Balloon tag at the park. Mr Sweet spent about 4 hours filling water balloons. The kids spent about 10 minutes using them all up. But then they kept playing at the park so it was all good.
*Water Balloon clean up. We gave everyone a bag and told them the one with the most used water balloons would win a prize. Yes we really did that, the kids knew it was clean up but they were super good natured about it and we cleaned the park up in no time.
Lunch -  we headed back home and the kids had lunch of sushi and sandwiches.

#disclaimer I make no promises that it is really, really over I am an eternal optimist.

Linda Vandermeer is a blogger, baker, maker and author of the cookbook ' Sweets on a Stick': More than 150 kid friendly recipes for cakes, candies, cookies and pies on the go!. Published in the US the book is available at most online book stores.

Original photography by Linda Vandermeer do not reuse without permission.  Note some of the previous party photographs in this post were taken by other photographers, please do not reuse those photos.