Hockey 3 on 3

As you know my son is a hockey player. He likes to have parties where we "do" something so he came up with a 3 on 3 hockey tournament 2 years ago. He requested we do it again this year because it was so much fun.

We use street sticks and a tennis ball. Both can be purchased at any sporting good store.

The age range was from 3-50 and I was surprised at how competitive everyone could be. We play first to 3 points or if it's taking a long time, first goal wins the game and the winners advance. If it's a really TIGHT game, the team has to win by 2 and they have to win by 2 for the championship. First face off of the day

We have 8 teams of 3 and a couple of the teams have 4 because they get one of the little kids. We have a bracket system set up and it's single elimination. Looks something like this:

Team 8 vs Team 1..game 1
Team 7 vs Team 2..game 2
Team 6 vs Team 3..game 3
Team 5 vs Team 4..game 4

Winner game 1 vs Winner game 3..game 5
Winner game 2 vs Winner game 4..game 6

Championship game is the winners of Game 5 and 6

I ordered 3 trophies from the local trophy place (bowling alley in our case). And, had cups of candy for 2nd place.

I served only concession food: Nachos with cheese, Pretzels with Cheese, Pizza, Hot Dogs, Popcorn and Chocolate Chip cookies.

I made a cake out of Ding Dongs because they look closest to hockey pucks.

Did you know that in MN I could NOT find hockey decorations?! Nope, not one decoration and I don't order decorations because I like to see the quality. Luckily, we plan ahead so when we went to Wild Games, my son and nephew went around and collected the hard plastic beer cups and I ran them through the dish washer and TaDa, we had "hockey" decorations to go with the plain red plates and napkins. Red and Green balloons and streamers finished the outside. And, I made these simple print outs from Microsoft Word and a color printer for the inside.

I also made the invitations on Microsoft word. Nothing fancy. They have hockey clip art, put some clip art on the page and the basic information and you're ready to go.

The kids had fun decorating our driveway to look like an ice rink and they even put up partical boards (they leaned them on my bushes to keep the puck in play) with sponsors spray painted on them.

I was told by many that this was the best party I've ever thrown!

Baseball Party

Baseball Tournament...Almost everyone played, ages ranged from 2-50. You have to kind of have an idea of who is coming so you can make the teams so you know what size shirts to buy.

I bought Hane's t-shirts at Walmart 5 for $5 and tie dyed them either RED or BLUE.

We walked to the local park and played 3 innings with a wiffle ball and bat. Everyone had a blast.

I served Popcorn (made microwave popcorn that morning and bought small popcorn bags..I used a laundry basket to hold the bags), Peanuts (bought a large bag and put them into snack size baggies) and Cracker Jacks at the game along with Gatorade and Water.

When we got home we had hot dogs, brats and chips. I made baseball sugar cookies and baseball decorated cupcakes.

Party Ideas

A couple of friends suggested that I share some of the parties that I have done for my kids. In my opinion I don't go crazy, it's just some extra effort and sometimes a bit of planning ahead. My kids look forward to their birthday party every year.

I have a large family and network of friends and they are always up for some fun.

So, be on the look out for party fun ideas:)