Summer birthdays can be a challenge for kids. Without school in session and all the family vacations that take place in those months, coordinating efforts to host a big party doesn’t always seem possible/worth it given the smaller pool of guests to invite from. As such, we have always given our kids the option of a party or a birthday staycation and up until this year, our summer birthday girl has always chosen the latter. But when presented with the idea of doing an intimate, dive in movie party for a close group of friends AND with the food/fun logistics taken care of for mom, we dove in headfirst (see what I did there?) to this super fun party idea.
xo,
Kira
The Theme
For her movie party, our girl selected The Emoji Movie, making the theme for the party a no-brainer. She wore a super cute emoji bathing suit and we kept the décor simple, with signs and cut outs of her favorite well-known emojis. Party guests were greeted with emoji tattoos and sent home with treat bags filled with emoji fun fidgets, stickers, and candy.
Yard deSIGNS East Valley further supported our theme with an adorable entrance to her party. Since we hosted the event at my parents’ amazing pool, this was the BEST way to signal to her friends where the party was and made for a great photo op!
The Food
Real talk, as much as I love hosting and cooking, summer is SO busy for us. With back-to-back kid birthdays, travel, work etc. I did not really have the bandwidth to plan for anything homemade. Boca Tacos to the rescue! Not only do they have a full catering menu, their summer Pool Party Pack is an easy and delicious way to serve a crowd. Kid friendly, the bean and cheese burritos, guac and chips and salsa were a hit with everyone. Clean up was a breeze and we were able to freeze the leftovers for future enjoyment (who else hates wasting food?!) Perfect poolside party fare!
The Fun
To make this outdoor movie happen, Inflate 48 was the ideal option to partner with. Located right here in the Easy Valley, they offer so many awesome party rentals including the Under the Stars Movie Package we booked. It truly brought the movie theater experience right to our own backyard. They provided everything we needed – the screen, projector, and sound system. The team was super communicative and friendly, setting everything up for us the day of the party. All we had to do was plug and play our firestick and voila! Instant fun! That was until of course mother nature had other plans…
Being from the Midwest, we are pretty familiar with plans being interrupted by inclement weather. So when the forecast for party day included rain, we just decided to hope for the best and roll with whatever came our way. And boy, did the rain come! Just as the kids were getting into the pool, a huge monsoon hit forcing us to call the dive in movie, take down our outdoor theater, and move things indoors. And though there was disappointment not to get to enjoy the movie as planned, the kids still had a blast together.
And now that we know just how great an Inflate 48 party can be, we are going to plan a little back to school bash and try out our dive in movie party again in a few weeks (post-monsoon season!)
