let's have a ball

One of Lawrence's top loves in life are balls.  So we decided to have a ball themed party for him in the park.  One of the most important makings of a good party is good cake.  I made his basketball cake and personally I thought it was delish.  The recipe came from a friend who got it from rosebakes.com (the wedding cake recipe).  Seriously, the cake has a cup of sour cream in it.  There is nothing else that needs to be said.

I also thought it would be fun to have cake balls decorated as..... balls!  I read some different blogs on how to make these little balls of fun.  Here are my best tips after one time at bat.

Cake Balls 101:

- I used a red velvet cake mix.  Bake, cool, crumble in a bowl.  Then add a container of vanilla frosting (I used about 3/4+ of the container b/c I wanted them to be cakish; you can add the whole thing if you want them gooey).   

- I also made some oreo flavored balls (1 package of oreos, 1 pkg cream cheese). 

- I used a cookie drop to make the balls and then put them in the FREEZER.  Very important step in order to keep little crumbles out of your dips.

- The footballs I dipped in melted semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used Ghiradilli brand).  These were over the top sweet in my opinion.  But hey, they looked cute, and sometimes that's all that matters.

- I used vanilla almond bark for the baseball/soccer balls.  I honestly haven't spent much time perfecting my skills with almond bark.  In the past I just glopped it on and it tasted good and looked just ok.  I spent a little more time on it this time.  I found that melting it in the microwave (not the stove or double boiler) worked best.  I did 1/2 the package at a time and melted it for 1 minute, stirred, 10 seconds, and it was about right.  I used a plastic fork and broke out the middle spokes so I had a little tool for my ball to sit on.  The technique that worked best for me was to spoon the bark over the ball then dip the bottom in the bowl and scoop it back up with my fork.  This helped the bark stay smooth and clean. 

- I used red decorating gel for the baseballs.  It worked alright and was cute.  It stayed goopy so it was a little messy.  But messy is ok at a party.

- I didn't trust myself to use black gel to make hexagons, so I found little candy toppers that were soccer balls (Wilton brand in the cake decorating aisle).

- The cake and oreo balls with almond bark were fabulous and I would totally make them again!

The rest of our goodies -- all round like balls!



Here is Lawrence camped out by the cheese balls  :)  He hadn't ever had one (for good reason) before this moment.  He made his way up the table and Grandpa served him up a few.  The kid would not touch anything else.  Not even kidding.  He wouldn't even try one bite of the cake that I made for him!!!  There's something addicting in those little balls of nothingness.

What else shows up to a party in the park?  The WIND!!!  So I made table weights because I knew that there was a 99.9999% chance it would be windy in Kansas.



I used Easter egg balls from Dollar General.  Then tied a safety pin to one end of a ribbon and a washer to the other end.  Filled the balls with washers and nuts and rocks, and pinned them to the tablecloths!  Next time I would probably super glue them shut b/c the kids opened them.  It had crossed my mind but I wanted the option to reuse my supplies.

More table weights.  I also used the ball eggs as party favors and put stickers inside.

Games are always fun for a party.  The ball pit was a hit.  At one point there were probably 5 kids in the pool at once!

I got the ball pit balls at Target and the inflatable balls from Oriental Trading.  After I used the inflatable balls in the pit, I gave them as party favors as well.



We also had a tunnel.  And a basketball goal.  And a football toss through a hula hoop.

Little Man is still rather meticulous.  Every little shred of paper had to go to the trash can.  One bitty piece at a time.  Love his little personality!

He had to blow out his candles several times.  It's your day -- live it up on cheese balls and candles!

I love our little family!