Baseball Party -7yr- Wiffle Ball Toss

For my son's 7th birthday we decided to have a baseball themed party in our backyard. 

The invitations were done in ticket" form Place:"Smith Stadium" 2:00-5:00.  I also sent a flyer with each invite that said adults were admitted for free if accompanied by a child.  I listed game day "provisions" on the flyer as well (hot dogs drinks games prizes bounce house cotton candy).   

We put up a few balloons for decorations but the games and bounce house were decorations in themselves.  When each child arrived in the backyard they turned in their ticket (if they remembered it) and got their lanyard with their games tickets and a prize bag each with their name on it.  I made the lanyards from ribbon & lanyard clips I purcahsed from Michaels.  The clips held a picture of a baseball with their name on it and a ticket for each game they were doing that day. 

The goody bag was empty when given to them - just to hold their loot.  They then went around to each station where the exchanged a ticket for a turn to play the game & get their prize.  The tickets helped to make sure that each child only received one prize per game - they could play as many times as they wanted but only got one prize. 

We had 5 stations: throw the wiffle ball through the cutouts (I made this from a discarded piece of cardboard about 4' x 4'- I simply cut 4 holes in it in the shape of bases & made it look like a baseball diamond) knock down the jugs with the baseball (I used 3 coffee creamer jugs filled them halfway with gravel and decorated them with wrapping paper to make them look festive) an art station (I bought plain white baseball caps from Oriental Trading and gave the kids foam stickers and regular markers to decorate them with - don't spend the extra $ on fabric markers - regular markers work just fine) a batting cage game (explained later) and a 3 legged race.  Fortunately I have nephews that are 13 & 14 and they each manned a game for me I also had grandma's checking kids in when they arrived and friends monitoring the art table - this all makes for a calmer mom! 

We also had a bounce house going on at the same time - so the kids just ran around like crazy because they had so many options.  We had hot dogs bagged chips and drinks available the entire time - which is nice because people can eat if they're hungry or wait if they're not. When we rented our bounce house the company also offered a batting cage game.  They through in the game for free if we rented a cotton candy machine as well - which was really fun - and very unexpected.  I let the kids run free for about an hour and a half before organizing the three legged race.  This is an old-fashioned game which was a big hit with these young kids that had never done it before.  Even the grown-ups tied their legs together & took off when the kids were done. 

After the race we settled the kids down and gave them cupcakes (decorated with white frosting & red laces so each one looked like a baseball) and ice cream cups while the birthday boy opened presents.  One thing we like to do during presents is call on each child to get their present out of the pile & hand it to the birthday boy for him to open.  This way the gift giver gets to stand next to the birthday child and watch them open their gift (great picture opportunity) - it also is easier for the birthday boy to remember to say "thank you".    Each child got to take home their 4 prizes from the games (bubbles parachute guy medal from the race and a baseball soaker ball) and their hat that they decorated.  I also sent them home with a popcorn cup (Smart & Final) filled with big league chew crackers jacks and sunflower seeds. 

We played music throughout the entire party & then made a copy of the CD for each family to take home as well songs included: Take Me Out to the Ballgame We Are the Champions Centerfield Who Let the Dogs Out etc.  The CD labels said "Thanks for making my Birthday Party a Home Run.""