Rhett's second birthday was a pool party, so we decided to go with a beach ball theme. My inlaws were wonderful and let us have it in their beautiful backyard. Everything from invitations to cake had involved beach balls in one way or another...

I found these beach balls online at
Oriental Trading Co. They were on clearance, they happened to be for a 2
nd Birthday Boy, so they worked out perfectly! They cost $.25 cents each! Not bad for an invitation. My mom has awesome handwriting, so I spent an afternoon at her house and she wrote all of the invitations out by hand, while I did the dots!

Another view of the invitation. They were mailed out in padded envelopes with labels with beach balls on them. The postage ended up costing $1.39 each, so that added a little to my invitation total, but I still think under $1.70 each for invites and postage isn't bad!

I made some directional signs that looked like beach balls for our guests.

I really, really wanted a directional sign like this at the street, pointing guests to the back yard. I kept trying to come up with ideas, and I mentioned it to my parents. I went down the next day to their house, and my dad had these boards cut up for me waiting for me to paint. I loved how it turned out!
I taped this sign to the doorway where the guests would walk in.

Small, paper beach balls on string were overhead as the guests walked through the gate. The winds were high that day, so my beach balls got tangled. :(

I wanted to do a game of some sort, but couldn't think of anything clever to do with a beach ball. My husband came up with the idea of "Pin the Beach Ball on the Seal's Nose". I asked my mom to draw a seal for me, and I colored him and added the letters. I had small beach ball stickers for everyone to "pin" on the nose. Sadly, this game never got played. Everyone was just too busy swimming to play any organized party games. :)

I purchased all white beach balls from
Oriental Trading Co., and filled a tub up with them. I placed markers in a small bucket next to it, made the sign for them to decorate their own beach ball. I also found a beach ball online, printed it out, and made a coloring page for smaller kids along with crayons instead of markers.

I hung beach balls on trees all throughout the party. Cheap and easy decorating. Thanks to my mother in law who cut string and found some creative ways to hang some of the balls! I also found small, paper beach balls at
Party City. I used my
Cricut to cut out the number 2, and glued them to the front and back of the beach balls. They worked wonderfully as more decorations to hang from the pergola!
Drink table

Beach ball shaped
sippy cups that also served as favors

I punched holes in beach ball shaped tags and made straw tags

We also had beach ball drink stirrers

I ordered pizza and asked them not to cut it. I used a biscuit cutter and a pizza wheel to make the shape of a beach ball.

I ordered cake balls from a local bakery,
Cakeballs, and then painted them with edible markers to make them look like beach balls.

I made iced sugar cookies that looked like beach balls. Not the straightest and best looking cookie, but they sure tasted good!

We had beach ball plates

Beach ball balloons

More beach balls hanging in the beautiful backyard. Also, a beach ball pinata.

I was shopping at a local mall one day before Rhett's party and a department store had these giant, foam beach balls in their window. I asked them if I could buy them, and they lead me to their Imaging Director. He told me that he usually doesn't get rid of things, but that these were falling apart. Their trash was my treasure and I had 13 different sizes, plus a cool sign throughout Rhett's party! What a deal!


I asked guests to sign a beach ball instead of a traditional guest book. The tub was for the favors. Everyone received their very own beach towel as they left the party. Thanks to my talented friend Betsy for working so hard on those during her move!

I made banners using more of the $.25 cent beach balls from Party City. They said "sweets", "eats", and "drinks". The life ring at the bottom of the cake plate is from Rhett's room. I think it is neat to incorporate special touches into the party decor. Plus, since it was something that we already had, we didn't have to spend any extra money on it! I covered the tables in white table cloths, and added a beach towel down the center.

Here is a view of the sweets table with
tiki hut. I didn't get a picture of it with the cake on it. The temperature was so hot that the cake and cupcakes were literally melting!

Here is my precious birthday boy! LOVE him!

My parents bought Rhett this fun roller coaster that was a huge hit at the party! This is my nephew taking a turn.

Pinata time. Rhett didn't quite understand this game. He kept hitting the fence... on purpose.

My nephew, Luke, taking a turn.

My nephew, Jon, taking a turn. Even the pinata eye mask had beach balls on it!

Rhett opening some gifts!
Getting his big present from mommy and daddy!