There’s a reason why this blog is called “Healthy SIMPLICITY”. I like to keep things simple. With eight children there is always so much that needs to be done so the simpler I can make life the less stressful it is.

On Sunday we invited everyone from church over to our house for an ice cream party. I’ll be honest. I love looking at party plans on Pinterest and seeing all the great decorations and menus people come up with. If I had the time I would totally do parties like that. I don’t though, and I would rather have people come over to our home and enjoy their company with something simple than never have anyone over because I can’t make a big splash.

So in hopes of inspiring you to enjoy the company of friends even if you can’t afford or don’t have the skill for all the hoopla here’s what we did.

I tried to make the brownie bowls that I saw somewhere on the internet. They didn’t work but it wasn’t a loss we just set them out as is for people to make a brownie sundae with. We chose chocolate and vanilla ice creams because everyone likes one or the other of those. My husband couldn’t find strawberry syrup so I made my own. I just heated frozen strawberries until they thawed, added sugar and vanilla to taste and blended it all with an immersion blender. It took me about five minutes and was oh so yummy. For toppings we had walnuts, smarties (like M & M’s only most Canadians think they’re better ☺), crushed pineapple, bananas to slice in and coconut. There were also cones for the children (and big children).

I wanted just a little decoration on the table so my daughter made some medium-sized pom poms. I attached them to skewers, and we put the in a vase with curling ribbon around the bottom. To make them stand out just a little more I set the vase on a cake pan and covered it with a napkin that matched the tablecloth.

One of our friends has five boys. Our backyard was full of little boys running around, making noise and having fun. The weather was perfect – not too hot or cool.

Everyone had fun, the ice cream was almost all eaten, and we enjoyed each other’s company. If I were to do it again, I think I would include making homemade ice cream in our hand churn ice cream maker just for the fun of it.

Have you had any fun but simple parties this summer?

Linked to: Art of Home-Making. Made by You Monday, Titus 2 Tuesday, Handmade Tuesdays