Basketball & Pizza -11yr- Basketball Cake Pops

We celebrated our 11 year old son's 11th birthday with a Basketball Party.   

Invitation: I made invitations that looked like and was shaped like a basketball on one side and a pizza on the other. It said, Let's Celebrate with Pizza..." (on the pizza side) "...And Basketball" (on the basketball side). You could twist them open and inside were all the details for the party.  

Decorations: We hosted the party at a camp and so it was mostly outdoors. We only had the food tables set up inside. I used blue and red and orange for the color scheme. Blue and red because the Atlanta Hawks are his favorite team and orange for the basketball. I used Basketball plates to make a streamer above the dessert table and hung coordinated streamers and a basketball shaped birthday sign above the entrance.

The balloons were all orange or red and blue. The plates were basketballs as were the cups the napkins were of the Hawks and the tablecloths were red and blue. 

Activities and Games: When we arrived we gave each kid a basketball (to keep). We played several basketball games at the court there.

Dribbling: who dribbles the longest without stopping team races dribbling forwards and then backwards free throws knock out horse around the world and who can make a granny shot from the furthest away. We took a break half way through the basketball games and each kid got to make their own pizza (a friend made the dough and they go to roll it out and put on it whatever they wanted).

Then while we finished the basketball games we started to put all the pizzas into the oven. Then we had lunch cake and opened presents. After that we played sardines and hide and seek. The last activity was a basketball pinata. 

Party snacks and cake: Typical "game" food. Pizza hot dogs popcorn. Then I went with the orange theme. We had cheese puffs baby carrots mandarin oranges and oranges decorated to look like basketballs with food decorating pens.

I made cake pops that looked like basketballs and cookies that looked like the Atlanta hawk. Then we had a cake for the adults that was shaped like half a round basketball laying flat and decorated with Reeses Pieces to look like a basketball. The kids had cupcakes. They looked like basketball hoops made with cookie pops shaped like a backboard stuck into a cupcake. Reeses peanut butter cups for the hoop and orange candy balls. So cute! 

Favors: Each kids got to take home their own basketball 

Costumes: We told everyone to wear their favorite basketball gear. The adults wore black and a whistle.   It was a great birthday idea for an older boy and it was perfect to do it outside where they had plenty of space to run around and get out all their energy. It was definitely something we would do again!!"