Colton's Basketball Party

Ok, so here's the skinny on Colton's party.  Kids came.  Lots of kids.  They played games, earned tickets, spent tickets, ate cake, and of course present opening...

Now, here is the party in pictures.  I wish I had more.  I wish I had better lighting.  I wish, I wish, I wish...
 
Setting the scene is always my favorite part of the birthday party....Kimmie and I made the signs, I made the banner...I think my favorite decorations were the score board and the balloons...but the whole thing together was pretty freakin cute...

When the kids first got here, all 17 of them, Kent lined them all up in the front and explained that they were all going to go into the backyard and get to find 2 basketball eggs...just 2.  And then again...just 2.  Inside the eggs were tickets...they had 2, 3, or 4 tickets in each...

Now on to training....Kent was the coach, and he called on Easton, Graycie, and Macy to assist...it was commical to say the least...they did jumping jacks, crunches, and ran from fence to fence...and I almost forgot, Easton had them doing high knees too...Now that I look at it, the top row middle picture was from the egg hunt, my bad...training earned you 5 tickets

After training came the Basketball tournament..."Sanders Shoot-Out"  The first 3 rounds were supposed to be funny, and easy.  The age range at the party went from 3 to 10, so I was trying to figure out a way to make it so everyone could earn some tickets and have some fun.  Round 1 was Addy's hoop, Round 2 was a fisher price hoop, Round three was an inflatable basketball and a hula hoop....

 
Round 4 you had to make a basket in the real hoop, we lost a few here...then if you passed Round 4, you had 1 shot, and few steps back to go PRO...if you went PRO you got paid for playing, 10 bonus tickets...up until that point the ticket amount was equivalent to the round...Colton was pretty disappointed he didn't make his PRO shot, I didn't want him to be disappointed at his own party, so we fudged the rules and let him shoot until he made it, and then invented "semi-pro", which earned you 5 bonus tickets, Maverick went semi-pro too...but Graycie, Macy, and Easton were for reals PRO...it was pretty fun, and the kids that didn't make it had fun playing on the swing set...

This was the 'Bracket' with the results...I hand made my basketball stickers...an orange marker, black sharpie, and white circle stickers...clever right?  I thought so anyway...

 

After we came inside and handed out all the tickets from the Shoot-Out, I realized I had no idea how to make going into the 'Club House and Concession' fair.  A major detail I had over looked.  Lisa was quick on her feet and numbered the back of 17 tickets and the kids drew numbers, Colton lucked out and drew number 1...

 

When I set up the table I went Chuck E. Cheese style.  I broke the prizes into ticket values, and grouped them on the table so the kids could see what the choices were and how much they would cost them...my favorite prize was definitely the pennant flags.  Shayla whipped those up for me, then I printed them at Kinkos  and hot glued them to some dowels...in the bottom right corner are the bags I made to put all of their stuff in...

The kids shopping....it was pretty cute watching them try to decide what they wanted, if they had enough tickets, what someone else was getting...

And then time for cake.  Shayla made the freakin awesome cupcake toppers for me, and Alicia made the super cool jersey cake...Colton loved the cake, Kent thought I ruined it by putting in the candles...then after cake presents...

I think the party was a success.  It went surprisingly well considering the amount of children...when I asked Colton what his favorite part was he said "The whole thing!"  Aubs said buying stuff with her tickets...Now, I'll take a few days off and get started on Aubrey's

*this party was brought to you by The Dollar Tree, Hobby Lobby, Friends, and Family*

A HUGE Thank You for all those that donated time and moral support...