Happy Fourth of July!! This is our first time celebrating this holiday without the entire family in Wisconsin, so it was a much quieter day than we’re used to. I didn’t get many good photos, so I figured I should post about a red, white, and blue birthday party:) What’s more American than baseball??
Happy birthday to our “Little Slugger”
Being a second child myself, I’m very aware of the stereotypes associated. I have heard and used the phrase “poor second child” way more than I’m proud to admit (oops), but we try very hard to prevent J from actually feeling it. For the record, I’m aware that he will have absolutely no recollection of his first birthday… Just in case he’s looking through pictures someday, I want him to see that his first birthday was just as special as our first son’s!
We were pretty in love with the golf party we threw for our oldest son, so we weren’t sure if we could match it. I didn’t have as much time to plan because I had started back to work, part-time, and let’s be honest, everything takes longer with two kids. I gotta say, I think we matched the golf party, and the baseball theme was way more fun than I expected!
Baseball Banners
We came across the banners on Etsy (link here), and we loved them so much, we decided to design everything else around them. They were seriously amazing. We bought the “concessions” banner, the birthday photo banner, and the high chair “one” banner.
The other birthday banner was done by Joe’s mom, and she did an awesome job matching the colors! Lauren Quinn Design did the food cards and invitations for us, again, which turned out amazing… per usual:) The invitations looked like tickets, so we put two invites in each envelope to make the guests feel like they were getting tickets to a game… cheesy, I know, but I liked it haha
The Food
I have to admit, ballpark food might be some of the easiest party food I’ve ever done, not to mention crowd-pleasing. Who doesn’t like hotdogs, nachos, popcorn, and peanuts? We found cute little hotdog and nacho trays on Amazon, so we were able to have individual portions laid out and easy to grab. Crock pot kept the nacho cheese sauce warm, and we had condiments and toppings to finish it off. I also loved the little baseball plates and baseball confetti we found.
Dessert and Drinks
Our friend, Ashley, at Blush Arrow Cakes did us a huge favor by doing the cake for this party! Her third little girl was born just two days after J, so she had PLENTY on her plate at this time. Not to be too cutesy, but she totally ‘knocked it out of the park’ (again)! The little cupcakes to match were adorable and looked great on the table with the cracker jacks and cotton candy. The other desserts that were offered were baseball cake pops and ice cream in the baseball helmets.
The cake balls were so amazing and probably one of my favorite additions to the party. Definitely check them out at Cake Bites… Link here.
The ice cream in the helmet made me so nostalgic, I loved it. J’s favorite part was DEFINITELY the big chocolate baseball on top of the cake. It reminded me of D’s party with his white chocolate golf ball. Ashley definitely knows what she’s doing and whose she’s dealing with:)
We did this party pretty early in the day, so the idea of the bar was cute, but it definitely didn’t get used much. The idea was to offer people syrups to flavor their soda or as cocktail mixers for the adults. Still worth it in my mind because it looked good with the decor, and people definitely grabbed the soda and water. The rest of it will be used another time, no worries!
A shoutout to my husband for building another great bar! Who knew he was so handy??
Baseball Attire
The boys looked AWESOME in their little baseball uniforms. Joe is a Reds fan, so we got the boys toddler jersey’s, and we got J matching baseball pants from Etsy. Topped it all off with baseball caps and high socks. As for the rest of us, it was the most comfortable attire ever… Baseball tees and hats!
Other Details…
I’m a HUGE fan of hydrangeas. You might be asking yourself what that has to do with baseball. The answer is… absolutely nothing. But when there’s a way to work hydrangeas into party decor, I’m all over it. I like the cute touch of these flower arrangements, and the popcorn box was the perfect vase to tie it back into the baseball theme.
The other fun touch was the party favor boxes. We had packaged cotton candy and cracker jacks on top of the cake, ice cream, and cake pops, so we wanted to come up with something that wouldn’t put more sugar into the kids already buzzing with it. I found these adorable little catcher’s mitt and baseball soaps on Etsy (link here) and added the little keychain to go with it.
We had a bunch of baseball beach balls and play bats and balls for the kids to play with. I think the favorite activity was the piñata and was cute watching the kids take turns…
Totally successful morning and such a fun party with another incredible birthday boy!!!!
