3599

Basketball Party -8yr- Foil Wraps Hot Dogs

March 2002

Carla in Ajax, Ontario, Canada

Honorable Mention

My son loves basketball so for his 8th birthday we had a basketball party. 

I rented the gymnasium and party room at our local community center.  I had the gym for one hour and the party room for a total of three hours.  This cost a total of $64.00.  The party invitation was printed on basketball paper and stated: "And now stepping on to the court for the Chicago Bulls...Number 23...(name) Please join us at center court as we celebrate (name) 8th season in what proves to be an exciting home opener.  Arena: (where the party will be held) Tip-Off: (time of party) Post game reception to follow RSVP to coaches (parents names)  Please dribble up court for what we hope will be a slam-dunkin' good time. 

Since my son's favorite team is the Chicago Bulls I used a color scheme of red, black and white for the tablecloths, napkins, cups and plates.  Colors can be matched for different teams, Boston Celtics - yellow, green, white, etc. 

I downloaded graphics from the Internet and created placemats using the graphics as a border and each child's name displayed in the middle, this was done in Microsoft Powerpoint and laminated that way each child could take it home at the end of the party. 

Since I was using the basketball theme the food had to be authentic to the stadium.  I pre-cooked hot dog wieners and wrapped them in foil wrap to be transported to the community center.  I used my crock-pot to keep them warm while we played basketball.  I had ketchup, relish and mustard all in squeeze bottles for easier handling. 

We had popcorn, party mix and chips to accompany our hot dogs.  In keeping with the color scheme the pop was red mountain dew, cola and 7-up.  Again this could be altered depending on the team, Toronto Raptors - grape pop, cream soda or Hawaiian punch soda. 

For dessert my son requested brownies.  I baked them in a round cake pan and instead of icing I prepared one package instant butterscotch pudding with one package powdered dessert topping (Dream Whip).  I prefer this as it is not as sweet and icing and it gave me the color of the basketball.  I used brown decorating gel and chocolate sprinkles to define the lines of the ball. 

For the loot bags I used sports bottles (white with red lids) and filled them with red and black candies (licorice, ju jubes, berries, red lollies).  I tied red and white ribbon with a note printed on a tag "Thank you for coming to my party I hope you had a ball" with a picture of a basketball on the tag.  I had 16 children in total and since I had a gymnasium that was 6500 square feet with six baskets, I divided the gym in half and used four baskets, each team consisted of 4 players each there was less pushing and more people touched the ball more times.  It was a fun party to plan and my son and his friends had a great time.

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