Watermelon Party -1yr- Watermelon Punch

For my daughter's first birthday party we are planning a WATERMELON PICNIC!  Her birthday is at the end of June and since it is so hot we are holding it in the early evening.  I wanted everything to be watermelon-y but it was hard to find pre-made watermelon accesories so I improvised. I am using watermelon colors--melon red/pink, green, and black.

The INVITATIONS are a rectangular piece of green striped cardstock layered with a smaller peice of melon-y colored pink paper with black seeds drawn around the edges. The center of the pink paper has the party info in child-like font and the papers are tied together at the top with black ribbon to tie in the seeds.  The script is a poem containing the details of the party and under the top sheet (printed on the green paper) are the directions and info about the time capsule.

I am holding the party at a PARK a couple blocks from our house.  There is a big grassy field where we will set up a large grill in a corner between two trees which will have a Happy Birthday _____!! sign tied between them.  In front of that we bought a large canopy for like $70 at Bed Bath and Beyond to provide shade for the hot day.  Beneath the canopy will be bales of hay along the edges covered with pink plaid material (Wal-Mart, $1/yd).  In the middle will be picnic blankets for younger guests. 

We are renting two long tables to hold gifts and food.  I am using the same plaid material as table cloths and glass jars of wildflowers as centerpieces.  We found a watermelon pinata at Party City.com and pink and green serving bowls/platters also.  Matching balloons with curled black,pink and green ribbon are anchored in bunches to outline the area we are using and will also be tied to the bithday girl's high chair.  Also for the serving tables I found a bunch of cheap black ant stickers that I am going to have weaving between serving dishes.

For ACTIVITIES we are planning things for the kids and other stuff for the adults.  The kids will enjoy a waterballoon toss, pin the candle on the cake, musical chairs and a three legged race.  Adults will play baby trivia games and help take pictures of the party with disposable cameras.

The CAKE is two round cakes with red Kool-Aid flavoring (for color) and mini-chocolate chips mixed in a white cake mix. The cakes are stacked on top of eachother and the edges are frosted with green while the top is frosted in red to look like a round slice of watermelon.  I will also scatter mini-chocolate chips on the top as seeds.  A mini version of the same cake will be for the birthday girl.  You can also cut another round cake into watermelon shaped triangles and frost as accents to the cake. 

The ICE CREAM will be similar.  I lined a plastic mixing bowl with plastic wrap and smoothed a 1" layer of pistacio ice cream in the bottom and sides to the shape of the bowl.  Mixed more chocolate chips in strawberry icecream and filled the rest of the bowl with that (you can also use lime and raspberry sherbert).  Deep freeze it so it gets very hard and slice it at the last minute into watermelon shaped slices.

The FOOD will be fun.  We are making grilled mini-hamburgers on dinner rolls, hot dogs, potato salad, fruit kabobs, chicken and beef skewers, antipasto, and guacamole.  I am also making three different types of watermelon punch from recipes I found at watermelons.com and sun tea.  These will be in jugs with spouts to accomodate kids. 

I found green and pink plates napkins bowls and cups as well as ribbon, and other decorations.  The plasticware and napkins will be held in mini picnic baskets I found at Michael's.  I made long paper chains with my color scheme to link between trees instead of streamers which I find tedious. There are big watermelon posterboard cut-outs (I made easily with markers and white posterboard) with big black arrows pointing the way to the park. 

I thought the decorations were quite cheap for as much as we have to decorate a park with--which is hard anyway.  I highly recommend planning way in advance so you can buy a few things at a time so spread out the expense.  I am so excited to see how everything turns out.  I know my daughter and everyone else will have a great time.