A fun 1st birthday party with Wally, the Red Sox Mascot

Our son turned 1 this summer and we were really excited to host a Red Sox themed party for his first birthday. We were initially going to keep it to a small family gathering but then decided to invite our larger group of friends and family and have a backyard barbecue with fun and games.

We had been planning this for a while and looking forward to having a special guest come for a little while at the beginning. Wally, one of the Red Sox mascots, started the party off in style. The Mascot Team at the Red Sox ensured that we were kept informed at every step of the way. Their communication was top notch. First, we worked with them to schedule a date and time and as the time got closer we even worked with them to get some Wally artwork that we could use designed for the party. The guy who was in costume as Wally himself, called us the night before to discuss any final details and requests that we had. He only asked that we have a space available for him to change into costume and we asked if he could first meet our kids so they would understand that there was a person inside of the Wally costume.

Wally was absolutely fantastic. I don’t know who was more excited to have him there, me or my daughter, because he took the time to play with the kids, started our piñata game with the kids (even taking a few swings) at a Wally themed piñata, took pictures with everybody, laughed, pretended to cook on the barbecue, gave autographs and even kissed the kids! Everyone was smiling and genuinely enjoyed Wally’s company.

We served up hot dogs, hamburgers, french fries, salad and wings. The best idea we had was to use The 3 Meal Muffins’ Port Muffins (portuguese sweet muffins) as a substitute for hamburger buns. We threw them on the griddle and people thought they were so good and so smooth.

We had soda, juice and Bai drinks for people to enjoy as well as lots of other snacks to munch on. The Bai drinks are great because they are loaded with anti-oxidant nutrients found from the outer part of the coffeefruit and sweetened with a proprietary blend of stevia extract and erythritol. The nice part is that the entire drink is only 5 calories per serving.

For dessert we enjoyed Vice Cream, an indulgent, premium ice cream with decadent flavors. Our friends and family really enjoyed the Minted flavor, mint-chocolate coins and cookie crumbles decadently mixed with creamy mint ice cream and Afternoon Delight, which ha ultra-creamy vanilla ice cream with chunks of chocolate chip cookie dough, salted caramel truffles, and thick swirls of chocolate fudge and caramel.

NOTE: We were provided with some of the products in exchange for facilitating this review: Vice Cream and Bai Drinks. We are Red Sox Parents and Vice Cream Creamy Crew. As part of Red Sox Parents, we share the Red Sox family friendly initiatives with you!