Sports Theme -3yr- Sports Ticket Invite

My son LOVES sports, so for his 3rd birthday we had a sports themed party. 

We rented a pavilion at a local park.  It was great because the park has a kiddie pool and larger pool with free swimming, 2 play areas for different aged children, and loads of open space to play.  We decorated the pavilion with strings sports banners from the dollar store, and covered the picnic tables in matching tablecloths.  We used regular plates, plate holders and regular cups for the food and drink, but had matching cake plates. 

I brought sports equipment from home (having a van where the seats come out is handy for this).  I brought our little tykes basketball net, soccer net, a box of balls, safety lawn darts, small plastic lacrosse sticks, and a hoop that we tied onto a tree branch for football toss.  Since there is plenty of room at the park to play we set up stations beside the pavilion. I also bought plastic hockey sticks and put them at one end of the pavilion for the kids to try.  All the kids at this party were 3 or under, so I brought balloons for balloon volleyball (just supervise them closely). 

For older kids, you could have team games like wheelbarrow races, shoe toss (whoever kicks their shoe the farthest wins), or our family favourite, shoe pile (place all the shoes in a pile, line up at the line, and when the whistle blows you have to find your shoes, put them on and then race back to the finish line).  For older kids you could also set up challenges for each sports station. 

Invitations:  I printed the invites on ticket making paper.  Make it look authentic by adding the event, place, time (Gates Open: 12 pm), sports-themed clip art, Row#, Seat#, Admit One (on both sections), and number both sections of the ticket.  I also added Food & Refreshments, Games, Crafts, Swimming.  This let the guests know what to expect and to bring their swimsuits! 

Crafts:  I printed sports themed pictures for the kids to colour and on plain paper I cut out blank banners for them to decorate. I brought markers, crayons, and stickers from home. 

Food:  I brought snacks - pretzels, carmel corn, chips etc. and ordered pizzas that were delivered hot and fresh right to the pavilion.  For drinks, I brought bottled water, bottled iced tea, loganberry mix and different kinds of soda pop.  The water and iced tea were the most sought after.  After everyone ate and played, we had the pinata.  It was a football pinata and the kids had fun trying to break it open and even more fun gathering up candies (make sure these are age appropriate) This kept them busy while we waited for the pony to arrive. Yes!

I couldn't resist after seeing an ad in a local paper.  The kids each rode the pony 3 times during the hour he was there. The pony rides were such a hit that one guest had him at her son's party and two more friends are planning on it for their kids' parties. 

Cake:  I ordered an amazing cake at Zehrs.  It was a football theme - football field with all the markings, two goalposts, two players and a referree - it was a real hit!  I had sports themed cake plates and party blowers. 

After the cake, we handed out sports themed goodie bags and in them were a 'sports' pencil and notepad, a yo-yo (big hit too) that looked liked a basketball, tennis ball, or soccer ball, a medal, stickers, and chocolate 'sports' balls (from Zehrs) - all the other items were bought at the dollar store.

I also sent thank yous with a picture of a hockey player on the front (found on a web-site) that I printed on the computer.