Friday, March 1, 2013

Simple and Budget Friendly Pool Party

 I don't know about you all but I am d.y.i.n.g. for some sunshine and warm weather!  I've just had it with all this snow and freezing rain and dreariness.  It's horrible.  Who in the world chooses to live here permanently is what I wanna know?!?  

Anyways, in trying to pull myself out of my winter-blues-induced-almost-depression, I was looking through some old photos from our life in Florida and I realized I've never shared my daughter's 3rd birthday party here on the blog.


This was pre-blogging days so the pictures aren't quite what they would be now, but I still wanted to share it.  
It was simple and very budget friendly, but the kiddos still had a blast.

So let Lucy do some 'splainin' here first.  I was 8 months pregnant (very very pregnant), I was huge, my feet were swollen, and I tired easily.  I knew I would need something really simple, easy, and cheap (hello...baby on the way!).  My original plan was just to pay McDonald's $75 to have them host the party and let the kids play their little hearts out on the Play Land.  But as it turned out none of the McDonald's in that area participated in the birthday parties.  So...I had to come up with plan B.  This was August...in South Florida.  August is the hottest month of the year down there and the temperatures can be sweltering.  The only option for an outside party was for it to be something involving water.


So I decided on a very simple pool party with pizza and cupcakes.  We kept it really small with just close family and a few little cousins.  My husband's grandma's house had a pool and she kindly consented to let us do the party there.

Most of the decorations came from Walmart or the dollar store.  
Colorful pennant buntings were hung, beach balls were added for color and to play with while swimming, and....



See these balloon clusters the arrows are pointing at?  They were actually punching balloons.  At the end of the party the kids got to take them home as a favor.  Double duty = wallet friendly.


This table was setup with plates, napkins, and favors and more bunting was added around the front.  The huge sunglasses served as decorations at first, and then the kiddos got to take them home as another favor.


The centerpiece was a dollar store bucket filled with sand with colorful lollipops stuck down inside.  And yep, you guessed it, they were favors for the kiddos.


I found cute paper goods at an online store that went along with our pool theme.


Another small table was set up for gifts.  
(Can you see the wall thermometer in the background?  It's pointing at 90....degrees....in the shade.)


(We're a very conservative Christian family and we don't do mixed swimming so after the moms and kids had their turn swimming, the men joined us for the pizza, cupcakes, and present opening. Then they had their turn swimming after us ladies took the kiddos home for their much needed naps.)

 After the pizza was devoured I cleared off this table and brought out the desserts.


Very simple cupcakes that I made myself.  The sun toppers kept the theme going, and were actually little rings....that served as favors.  :D


I also made these  cute little flip flop "sandals" laid on a folded up washcloth that was supposed to resemble a beach towel.  They were just Nutter Butter cookies, frosting, and those sour gummy worms cut into pieces and split open.


And here's Birthday Girl immensely enjoying the pool!

{Sigh}...I've had fun reminiscing about the sunshine....and heat....and being tan, but now it makes me miss it even more.  I'm getting so excited for our upcoming move back to the Sunshine State! 
 (The smart ones don't stick around if they don't have to, lol!)

I hope you enjoyed another simple and budget friendly party.  You don't have to go overboard on decorations, and food, and every little detail for it to be special.  Fun and good memories can be made even on the simplest of budgets.  

                                                          


(Affiliate links)
                                      

31 comments:

  1. I love the flip flop cookies, I would have never thought of that. Looks like your party was a hit!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cute theme! And, you wonder why some of us choose to live here??? Because it is home. And, this is just a tiny part of what you live through to get to experience the awesomeness of the four seasons. Living in Cayman for 2 years was nice, but I sure missed the beauty of fall and winter. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm just the opposite. 2 years of seeing the change of seasons has been nice, but I sure do miss the all year round sunny warm weather. : )

      Delete
  3. No fair... now I'm REALLY desperate for some warm sunny weather. Just the mention of Florida made my heart race and then the pool pictures???? I really need some sunchine! :-) Darling birthday party. Too bad the years have to fly by so quickly huh?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Well, I might actually get to meet you one day....my youngest son lives in Orlando!! When are you headed down that way???
    This was a great party! I have to remember these ideas for "Grandma Camp" next summer. No pool among our family...we will have to adjourn to the lake :^)
    Blessings to you,
    J

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow! You didn't even need to go to the beach to enjoy the warm weather. This birthday celebration seemed like it was a blast! The place, the food, and everything in between made the party super fun and exciting. You can see that the birthday girl was very amused. I wonder if she even knew that the party was for her. Hehe! Good job on this one though. You simply proved that you don't need to spend big in order to have a fun party like this!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for sharing despite the winter blues you had then. I hope you are back in the sunshine state by now. In that case, I would love to see another simple and budget-friendly summer pool party this August for your little girl! Tiffany @ Pools ‘n More

    ReplyDelete
  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  8. While staying cool is great, there’s surely a lot to miss about the warm weather too. I hope it didn’t take too long for you to get back to the sunshine state, so you could start planning more budget-friendly pool parties you could share with us. Thanks for sharing this good memory!

    Lindsay Wood @ PoolShopWA

    ReplyDelete
  9. Very interesting and informative blog and about the pool parties I must appreciate your work well done keep it up.



    pool parties

    ReplyDelete
  10. Wow! What a great Party candy Images are there in it.in the swim coupon

    ReplyDelete
  11. Your blogs further more each else volume is so entertaining further serviceable It appoints me befall retreat encore. I will instantly grab your rss feed to stay informed of any updates. Schwimmbecken

    ReplyDelete
  12. Get the best nursing services baby care services medical equipment services and allso get the physiotherapist at home in Delhi NCR For more information visit our site 123movies

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thank you for providing an awesome outlet for my need to write and share.
    Keep writing on The farmhouse for birthday party in Delhi

    ReplyDelete
  14. Wonderful illustrated information. I thank you about that. No doubt it will be very useful for my future projects. 휴게텔
    Would like to see some other posts on the same subject!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Appreciate it! An abundance of posts.

    Here's my website : --오피

    ReplyDelete
  16. I read your blog and find some informative information. Join pool party day and night both from register our website and easily get your passes.

    Pool Party Vegas

    Vegas Pool Parties

    ReplyDelete
  17. I will really appreciate the writer's choice for choosing this excellent article appropriate to my matter. Here is deep description about the article matter which helped me more. I have also written a article would like to share this article with you related to how fast can we increase CPS. I will appreciate your valuable review on my article.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Thanks for the information your article brings.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I got really good information from this content, thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete

  20. Great article. Couldn’t be write much better! Keep it up!

    ReplyDelete

  21. Either way keep up the excellent quality writing.

    ReplyDelete

  22. your posts are neatly organized with the information I want,

    ReplyDelete

  23. Interesting! I was thinking the same thing as you.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Thank you. I have a lot of interesting ideas. I want you to look at the post I wrote

    ReplyDelete
  25. Such an amazing and helpful post. I really really love it

    ReplyDelete
  26. such a great blog. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  27. It’s really a great and helpful piece of information.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment. I love hearing from you!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...