We needed a fun but safe birthday party for our 8 year old girl. We didn’t want another covid-style party but we couldn’t have a huge gathering, either. So we decided to do a drive-thru All-Star theme birthday party!
We always do themed birthdays for our girls and my hubby and I make everything on our own. Balloon garlands, personalized backdrops, loot bags, favours and even the birthday cake! I’m so happy he is creative and willing to get involved in birthday planning just as much as I am and will go above and beyond to make it extraordinary for our girls, all within a budget.
A couple of weeks ago, Layan decided she wanted to do a basketball birthday party. She likes the Los Angeles Lakers and as it was her 8th birthday, it only made sense to do a Kobe Bryant theme, seeing as he had his legendary number 8 retired as the greatest Laker to ever wear the number. With such short notice from the birthday girl, we weren’t able to get a number 8 Lakers Kobe jersey so we decided to create our own, using a Lakers’-inspired font to depict Layan’s name on the front as well as the Lakers’ jersey font and the famed Kobe Bryant era number 8. We even re-imagined the New Orleans All-Star logo for Layan’s birthday itself and had it added to the shirt.
As it was an All-Star themed birthday, we had organized three drive through competitions; A 3-point shootout, for which we set up three racks of basketballs, a skills competition involving timed completion of a basketball skills course and of course a Slam Dunk competition, judged by a group of 7, 8 and 9 year olds. We also had a TV monitor set up with live scoreboards of each competition, one for younger participants and one for the older participants.
The leaderboard kept everyone engaged and wanting to take the top spot.
Everyone took their shots on the streets then walked through the backyard to take a photo with the birthday girl.
The personalized loot bags and individual charcuterie boxes are were most popular!
Every birthday, we like to do a personalized chalkboard! It’s always so much fun creating!
Layan wanted the most simple birthday cake this year! She asked for a basketball cake! And I made it just the way she described it. I didn’t expect to cut the cake because I thought we’d need to social distance at all times. Last minute, we decided to sing happy birthday 6 ft apart and it was as perfect as it could be.
It was a beautiful birthday celebrated all day with family and friends. We had the most perfect weather and everything went smoothly! Until next year!
Smile, its free therapy 