Last Minute Pool Party

My daughter LOVES the pool, and all summer she has been begging me to invite all her friends over for a pool party.  So...I threw together an easy last minute pool party.  It was nothing special, but I did some things I thought my readers might like hear about and maybe incorporate into one of their own parties...

Invite: I wanted to do an invitation with a beach ball that rotated.  I started searching the Web for a beach ball image, and I stumbled upon one on Living Locurto!  She had the same idea I had, and she had already done the work for it (thank you! thank you!).  The free printable is offered on her site.  After I printed out the beach ball on cardstock, I used my scrapbooking circle cutter to cut around it.  Then, I designed the inside on Microsoft Word to fit a circle the same size as the beach ball (approx. 4.7").  I glued the text circle to 5.5" x 5.5" squares I cut out of bright colors of card stock.  I then I rounded the edges.  I secured the beach ball outer circle with a small brad so that it could rotate.

I already had plastic tablecloths from previous parties (yes...my family recycles), so I used these on the tables. Since this was a last minute party and budget friendly, I didn't want to spend money on centerpieces either.  I washed some of my daughter's sand buckets to place on the tables and cut up a pool noodle that already had a flower shape to place on the table as well.  The buckets I filled with chips for guests to snack on throughout the party.

I made these easy pool-inspired cupcakes as a little end of swimming treat.  Nothing hard about these...Just vanilla cupcakes with light blue frosting.  I spread the frosting a bit sloppily to make it resemble the ripples of a pool. Finish them off with a circular gummy candy in the center as a floatie, and a honey gram bear as your swimmer.

Happy Summer! (Or end of summer for us!)