Slam Dunk Party

Our son, Bryson, turned 12 this week, which meant that I got to use my event planning skills to plan a party. However, since we're fundraising missionaries without a regular income, we are trying to be very careful with how we spend our money. With a limited budget, I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to pull off a birthday party that would be "cool" enough for an almost-teenager who was inviting all his basketball buddies. We decided on a budget-friendly sleepover, but I knew that I would have to do a little something extra to bring the cool factor. Bryson chose a basketball theme and I started searching for party ideas that wouldn't break the bank.

On my new favorite website, Pinterest, I saw several pictures of parties that had a snack table with a "Concessions" sign over it. That got me thinking... what if we had an actual concession stand to go along with the basketball theme? So, I bought all kinds of concession type foods - pizza, corn dogs, nachos, pretzels, etc. and we set up our stand on the half-wall between the kitchen and dining room, complete with sign, menu board, and condiment station.

I bought a basketball banner from Party City and used pre-cut letters to spell out "Concessions". For the menu, I used a can of green beans as the pattern for circles, which my sister-in-law, Karen (aka, birthday party assistant extraordinaire) cut out of orange construction paper. I used a black Sharpie marker to draw a simple basketball pattern on each one and then glued them around the edges of a half sheet of black poster board to create a border. I used pre-cut letters to spell out "Menu" and then wrote the food choices with a white paint pen.

I found a couple of basketball buckets at the Dollar Tree, which I used for assorted candy. With the addition of some Twizzlers, a cardboard popcorn cup, and an example of each type of drink available, our counter display was complete. Bryson's younger sister, Laynie, played "concession stand attendant" and took the boys' orders, while Karen and I played "cooks" and fulfilled them.

For some added decoration, we created a custom banner also out of orange construction paper, using a cereal bowl for the circle pattern. Again, I used a Sharpie to draw the lines on the basketballs and then glued pre-cut letters to spell out "Happy Birthday, Bryson". A black circle separated each word and we fastened the circles together with small, gold brads.

For the entertainment, my husband, Stephen, set up our second TV and Playstation in the living room to add to the TV and Wii that were already there. This allowed the boys to have 2 different video games going at once. He also let them take turns playing laser tag in the backyard with the set Bryson had gotten for Christmas. After the traditional sleepover pillow fight, Bryson opened presents and we ate cookie cake decorated to look like a basketball court.

It was a long night, but the kids seemed to have a great time and afterwards Bryson declared that the party was "Awesome!" That was just what I was hoping to hear! Overall, I would say that it was a slam dunk.