Walker is 7 (and Another Sports Party!)

Many of you may not be surprised that yet again this year, Walker requested a sports-themed birthday party. And he wanted to invite twenty children to said party, and there had to be a basketball goal involved.

Seeing as I can't handle twenty 7-year-olds in my house, I had to get creative. And since two-thirds of Walker's class at school includes girls that don't play ball, I had to get even more creative.

After checking every local gym, sports complex and getting approval from the Walkerman himself, I decided on Umstead park in Chapel Hill, that had a great climbing structure, creek, basketball court, picnic area and open area for all of those energetic 7-year-olds to run off that uncontrollable energy.

You may remember Walker's sports party two years ago, which was similar. Luckily, I'd saved some of the decor from before and decided to give myself a break this year and hired a friend to make the cake. Target has some great plastic trophies that I picked up for decorations, along with bright colored gumballs and some black and white ribbon glued to bright-colored scrapbook paper for a fun bunting. I didn't go overboard on the food since it was an afternoon party. We snacked on cheese basketball crackers, mini-donuts, chips, popcorn, cake and ice cream. Nothing too fussy. You can check out my sports party pinboard for more fun ideas that I found.

The kids had a great time playing baseball, throwing a football through a hula-hoop, playing water balloon toss, and ultimately all ending up in the creek. And I mean literally in the creek. Turned my head for two seconds and this happens. I'm sure there was a mom or too unhappy about those wet clothes, but the kids were loving it. And Walker was certainly in his element being the center of attention.

Now if I could only get him to finish writing all of his thank you notes. I swear I have bribed him with a dollar per note. So far - three complete, 25 more to go. We may get them done by next year's birthday, so please excuse my un-southern manners by not getting them out within two weeks of the party. Little boys aren't much into their cute stationary and sitting still long enough to write complete sentences.