Stars & Stripes Pool Party

My sweet son celebrated his 10th birthday last weekend. Since it's so close to Independence Day, we went with a Stars & Stripes theme, using red, white and blue. After a few hours at a trampoline park, he and his friends came back to our house for a Pool Party.

After getting a bit carried away with his sister's Pancakes & Pajamas Party, my son was nervous his party would be too "little kid." But when he arrived home to this festive backyard, he was all grins.

I raided the Fourth of July section at Target and Dollar Tree for just about everything....rafts, pennants, paper lanterns, food baskets, and tablecloth. The centerpiece was clippings from our Yellow Belle bushes.

I used these free printables to jazz up the juice bottles, and tying the plastic tablecloth to the table legs kept it from flying up. The striped table runner I made here.

Boys aren't too picky, so the menu was simply hot dogs, watermelon, chips and veggies. They loved being able to double dip in their own cup of ranch dressing, and I kept them chilled by serving in a shallow pan of crushed ice.

The boys thought the plastic food baskets were "really cool...like a restaurant!" The napkins and flatware stayed tidy in paper-covered soup cans.

They were starving after jumping on trampolines for two hours, but I made them wait an extra minute so I could take pictures. There was definitely some blog resentment going on! Once I gave the okay, they attacked the food table.

Five minutes later, it looked like this. 

Finally full, it was time for more fun. And these boys are so sweet, they even let little sister in on it.

I had a side table set up with more fun stuff....suckers, pop-its and temporary tattoos. We sent the boys home with flip-flops and s'mores as party favors.

My son initially nixed the s'mores favors, but after my begging seeing them assembled, he conceded. His friends loved them, which only made him roll his eyes at me as I gloated.

The party was so fun, and I was able to enjoy it too since everything was so easy to put together. Thanks again to DimplePrints for the perfect invitation!