A farewell party to delight big and little kids
When your friends are moving, and leaving for a job at Ball State University, (it’s in Muncie, Indiana – great school – look it up!) you go all out with the balls. This was an outdoor farewell dinner for four families. Nearly half of the guests were kids (from 1 to 7 years old), so we needed some activities to keep things moving. There’s quite a lot of spherical-shaped food, so coming up with the menu was not tough. We had fun painting with golf balls and opening surprise balls. The guests brought more balls, to play catch, to pop, to roll…We rounded out the evening with ball piñata, filled with (you guessed it) balls. Here’s the party run-down.
Ball Party – We Had a Ball
The appetizers were a cheeky ‘Ball Bar,’ with sweet options including gumballs and malt balls to balance the savory cheese puffs. Yeah, we moved quickly to dinner.
The dinner menu included:
- a platter of cantaloupe (melon balls) and mozzarella over arugula, with a balsamic glaze
- pearl couscous with roasted tomato and peppers
- meatballs and sauce
- arancini
- and salad—spinach with hazelnuts and blueberries, with a maple balsamic vinaigrette
Here are the arancini, garnished with baby basil and edible flowers.
Blueberries had to be on the menu since they are the perfect shape, so we topped the salad with them and roasted hazelnuts.
Dessert was a very round scoop of vanilla ice cream, affogato-style, topped with a cookie dough ball, round as can be.
Decorations were super fun, with beach balls hanging above the table and more balls on the table.
At the table, each guest was surprised with a stress ball, hidden in their napkin.
Since there were so many children at the party, of course there was a craft activity. The kids painted with golf balls.
And we had surprise balls for the kids to open.
The guests were asked to bring a ball—and we ended up with a Magic 8 ball, balls with Velcro paddles, softballs, and much more…which resulted in pick-up games of all sorts. It was the perfect addition to party.
We rounded out the night with a pinata (shaped like a baseball), filled with more balls!
Indeed, we had a ball!
