May 2, 2017

Ice Cream Party

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #SoHoppinGood #BlueBunny #CollectiveBias

Ice Cream Party. The Summer days are here in Florida already, and we are eating ice cream by the pool by the truck load. One afternoon we were all splashing in the pool and the kids, being boys, decided to have an ice cream eating contest. They raced to finish a bowl of ice cream and the kid that finished first got to pick the movie we watched that night. I wish I had my camera for their faces as they inhaled all.the.ice cream! But, I got to thinking, it would be super fun to have some friends over for a similar contest and pool party.

A quick trip to my closest Walmart was all I needed to host our party! We had plenty of mix ins and ice cream party supplies. Obviously, I didn’t want to have the winner pick the movie at our house, in case one of my kiddos wasn’t the winner, so I picked up a Blue Bunny® Ice Cream Cake for the party and for the winner! Blue Bunny® is our family’s favorite ice cream, and they recently came out with a new lineup of ice cream flavors and treats! One that our family is really excited about is the new Blue Bunny® Ice Cream Cakes! Bunny Tracks OR Vanilla Bean Blondie, Bunny Tracks is our fav! I grabbed a few of their new flavors – Blue Bunny® Rockin’ Rocky Road™, Blue Bunny® Monster Cookie Mash™, Blue Bunny® Toffee Brownie Twist™, and Blue Bunny® Mint Cookie Crunch™, as well as some of their old favorites! Additionally, Blue Bunny® Cherrific Cheesecake™, which had been a seasonal flavor, is now available year-round, YAY! Blue Bunny® also introduced a totally new treat, Bunny Snacks™. They are the perfect bite-size treat available in four ah-maz-ing flavors; Salted Caramel Pretzel™, Chocolate Vanilla Twist™, Chocolate Chip Cookie™, and Cookies ‘N Cream™! The new Blue Bunny® treats give classic flavors a fun, unique twist and are perfect treats for the entire family. For more than 80 years, Blue Bunny® has been creating delicious ice cream made with fun, fresh ingredients for families, it’s the perfect treat for bringing the whole family together. Blue Bunny® products are available at Walmart stores nationwide. I also grabbed a few Walmart gift cards for the favor buckets so each guest family could purchase their favorite flavor of Blue Bunny® Ice Cream! I bought five packages of Blue Bunny® Ice Cream, and two of their new ice cream cakes for the party, and it was just enough for everyone. Since it was a pool and ice cream party, I pulled out some of our sand buckets I got on clearance last year and used them to hold ice cream cones, and the winner’s bucket of goodies. I found some mini sand buckets and used those to hold the ice cream. Each bucket held three scoops of a variety of flavors of Blue Bunny Ice cream. The favorite mixes were Blue Bunny® Mint Cookie Crunch™, Blue Bunny® Monster Cookie Mash™, and Blue Bunny® Vanilla. And Blue Bunny® Monster Cookie Mash™, Blue Bunny® Brownie Fudge™, and Blue Bunny® Vanilla flavors. Although, I liked the Blue Bunny® Toffee Brownie Twist™ the best! A tray with three sections held some ice cream mix ins and sand scoops to scoop them with. Sweet food tents from my dear friend, Jen T. by Design were the perfect addition to the tables I used rectangular serving trays to hold the buckets of ice cream and small bottles of water. I made edible beach “sand” and added a layer to the bottom of each serving tray under the ice cream buckets and small water bottles with little labels from Jen T. by Design too. The centerpiece of the table was the Blue Bunny® Bunny Tracks Ice Cream Cake. It was so very good too!

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I found a fun strand of ice cream cone garland recently, and I added that to the front of the table, and a simple pennant banner on the back drop. I also used my new SWIM sign a sweet friend made for me recently on the table. A simple beach ball on the floor was quickly thrown outside by the kids too. I knew the decor could be minimal for this party since it was really all about the ice cream and pool.

The kids had a blast racing each other to eat their ice cream the fastest, and then playing in the pool for a few hours. I love having silly fun summer afternoons with our kids, their friends, and our friends. Each family took home a small ice cream bucket with a Walmart gift card to buy some Blue Bunny® Ice Cream of their own, and a few little trinkets. The winner took home a larger sand bucket “trophy” with a cool new beach towel, some goggles, ice cream trinkets, and their own Blue Bunny® ice cream cake.