Ice Cream Party

Our ice cream extravaganza was all about colour and sprinkles. We chose bright green, yellow, orange and purple to pop alongside traditional vanilla and enhance an unmistakable sense of summer.

A trip to Spotlight uncovered a gorgeous array of coloured card from which we cut out dozens of “scoops” of ice cream and some textured beige scrapbooking pages perfect for cardboard cones. Spotlight also has fabulous string — who’d have thought twine could be so exciting? Some bright grass green made its way into our trolley and a happy hour was spent cutting and taping to make delightful ice cream bunting.

Invitations
Our sweet ice cream party invitation printables are available to download here. Alternatively, you could repeat our ice cream cone bunting design for your invitations. Print out your party details and stick them on the backs of the cardboard cones.

A summer ice cream party is best hosted outdoors if possible, and we highly recommend a plastic tablecloth! We chose a white plastic cover that we then decorated with a chevron runner and a generous sprinkling of confetti.

With ice cream being the hero on the day, we kept the rest of the menu fairly simple. Sandwiches provided a welcome alternative to sugar, along with piles of fresh strawberries. But there was no mistaking that kids were here for frozen goodness, so we let them loose with individual tubs of vanilla ice cream and a selection of not one, but 10 toppings.

Have some cones on hand as well to provide a fun alternative to sundae tubs. We gave our waffle cones some extra bling by dipping them in melted chocolate and rolling them in sprinkles. You could also pour melted chocolate and other treats inside the cone for some surprise indulgence — not that there is any lack of indulgence at an ice cream party!

Our guests were happily entertained creating their own desserts, but some high-energy games to help burn off the sugar are highly recommended! Our giant confetti balloons added a new dimension to a game of throw and catch.

For a twist on the traditional egg and spoon race, guests took part in a relay race while balancing a tennis ball in an ice cream cone.

And then to cool everyone off, guests were invited to try catching water balloons in cardboard ice cream cones.

Other party games could include:

• “Freeze!” (or Statues) 
• Pin the ice cream on the cone
• Ice cream sundae bingo

Inspired by the retro charm of ice cream parlours of old, our little guests were offered bottles of soda pop — lemonade we tinted with a drop of pink food colouring and served with floating strawberries from a charming glass dispenser we found at The Vintage Table.

A divine vanilla cake was the centerpiece, topped with butter cream icing and, surprise surprise, sprinkles!

Sprinkles were not just used for eating — we had great fun filling giant transparent balloons with paper confetti and letting the kids throw them around before popping them for a sensational cascade of colour.

We show you how to make those important party accessories

Ice cream to go
Our guests each took away an oversized ice cream cone filled with secret sweets to discover at home. 
*  Start with a rectangle of card (we used scrapbooking pages found at Spotlight) and roll into a cone before securing with staples or sticky tape.
*  Trim the top to make an even edge. 
*  Blow up a balloon to a size that would suit the cone and attach it to a balloon stick (available where party supplies are sold). 
*  Place the stick into the cone so the end pokes through the bottom. 
*  Fill cone with treats before pulling the stick down so balloon

Bunting
We made our own ice cream cone bunting from coloured card and string found at Spotlight. You could also download a printable ice cream bunting design from here.

Confetti balloons
We funnelled confetti into giant translucent balloons before blowing them up. These were
fun to kick around and even more exciting to pop!


Invites
Download our printable ice cream party invitations here.

• Cake by Bluebells Cakery, bluebellscakery.co.nz
• Pop N Fizz drinks crate, chevron table runner, wooden spoons and mini scoops all from poprocparties.co.nz
• Glass jars and drinks dispenser from thevintagetable.co.nz
• Ice cream cone holder from kiwicakes.co.nz
• Straws, plates, sundae tubs, candles and giant balloons from sweetpeaparties.co.nz 
• Tablecloth, coloured card, confetti, string and spotty balloons from Spotlight
• Invitations downloadable from ohbaby.co.nz
• Models wore clothes from The Warehouse