A Pool Party for my baby brother

Hola everyone!

I've been busy!  My baby brother, JR, turned 15th last week, and my birthday gift to him was a pool party.  We had so much fun!!!

Believe it or not, it was kind of hard to find summery/beach related decor and toys at this time of year.  Completely insane, since we live in a Caribbean Island!  Won't ever understand that...But once I did, it was great, as most of them were on clearance!  Woo-hoo!

I hit the web for inspiration for a super cool, teenage-approved pool party decor and toys, and this is what I came up with.

Lots of inflatables and balls for them to play, along with water guns, water balloons and beach balls.  I got some plastic whistles that they could put on their wrist and get in the pool with.  That was a big hit!

I placed a sand bucket with medium sized beach balls and lots of Sharpies for them to write/decorate their own beach ball.  I got the idea from somewhere in Pinterest, and the idea is that they take them home as a party gift.

 

Most of the items were labeled with my Spanish version of the free Splash Bash Pool Party printable I found at The Celebration Shoppe.  It was easy to customize in Photoshop.  I printed them on photo paper and then laminated them.

Some blue and red pinwheels found at Wal-mart for like $.50, provided some bling to some of the decorations.   Especially some jars with foam beach balls that I painted myself after finding Kelly's tutorial of a DIY Beach Ball Garland.  

We had candy, chocolates, lemonade, chips and fresh popcorn.

 

For the paper beach balls, I just punched a 1 3/4 inch circle, which I then painted with Sharpies.  Very quick and easy!

For food, we had sandwiches, fresh fruit and watermelon "popsicles" which I found super cool after discovering them in Melissa Camara Wilkin's Pinterest board, Fun for Toddlers .  A couple of hours after the party had started, pizza arrived!

I had soda, lemonade and bottled water for the kids.  And home made Sangria (made by moi) for the adults.

My favorite thing of the whole party was the Photo Booth!  I got the idea from Pinterest, and I used some of the free printables from Creative Juice, as well as some I made myself using SCAL and my Cricut.

We had tons of fun posing with the props!  To make them sturdier and sort of water proof, I did 1 hand of ModPodge on each prop.

Everyone had a blast on JR's pool party.  JR said it is the best birthday party I've ever done for him.  So much that his friends are asking when is the next pool party!

I should mention that it was really cool of Domino's Pizza to let me order the pizzas 24 hours in advance, and got them delivered at a pre-arranged time.  That was definitely a super time saver!

Issys