Oh those gorgeous summer evenings that we never wish could leave us. What could make them even more perfect than having an ice cream social with all the kids in the neighborhood?
I am such a planner and love hosting events. Neighborhood and community gatherings make perfect activities because you can walk there! Need I say more?
It’s also nice to get to know your neighbors to feel a sense of community around you. If you have school-aged kids, having them get together with their peers is a beautiful thing to watch.
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Gather All Neighbors
You first need to get all of your neighbors contact information or social media in order to get the word out about the ice cream social. You can do this one of two ways:
The old-school way of placing flyers in their mailbox is a sufficient way of getting invitations out. Recruit your children for this “job” as your little helper to walk around the neighborhood and put each flyer in the mailbox.
The new way of contacting neighbors would be a Facebook group. I love having a Facebook group for our neighborhood because it’s an easy way to get alerts and communicate with the neighbors.
Nowadays everything has a Facebook group so why shouldn’t your neighborhood? If you don’t already have one set up, put flyers in mailboxes asking people to join the Facebook group.
Make an Invitation
I quickly created this invitation to our ice cream social on Canva. I felt like it really portrayed the party right! Use this link to make a FREE invitation on your own with this template (Free Canva sign up required).
You’ll want to decide on the date and time first by communicating with neighbors which date works best. I chose to do a random Tuesday in August as an end-of-summer event.
I chose 6pm because I figured that most kids could be done with dinner by that time as well.
Plan the Activities
Of course the main activity at the ice cream social will be ice cream right? However you’ll want to have other fun activities for kids as well.
I basically just put out all the toys that were stored in my garage!
We had sidewalk chalk, tee ball, basketball hoop, bouncy house, large connect 4, bubbles, corn hole, kubb, and velcro ball.
I also set up small tables and little chairs for kids and captain’s chairs for the adults.
Don’t forget some adult beverages for the parents!
Buy the ice cream and toppings
The simplest way to go would just be to get ice cream sandwiches or popsicles, however I chose to do a full ice cream sundae bar. This consisted of ice cream and tons of toppings.
Along with the main ingredients, you’ll need bowls, spoons, etc. This could all be eliminated by just having popsicles, but if you really want to make the kids excited, go for the sundae bar!
What You’ll Need
Here is the list of items you’ll need to create your own neighborhood ice cream sundae bar. Choose any or all of the toppings!
- Plastic spoons
- 12 oz Ice cream bowls
- Cones (optional)
- Ice cream scoops
- Large cup with warm water for scooping and rinsing
- Table cloth
- Napkins
- Ice cream containers – We used 5 containers for about 23 kids
Toppings
- Rainbow/chocolate sprinkles
- Oreos (crumbled in a bag)
- Chips ahoy cookies (crumbled in a bag)
- Waffle cone (broken up into pieces)
- Caramel sauce
- Fudge/chocolate syrup
- Cherries
- Nuts – chopped small
- Granola
- Reeses pieces
- M&Ms
- Coconut flakes
- Gummy bears
- Mini marshmallows
- Mini chocolate chips
- Whipped cream
- Fresh fruit or fruit sauce
Have a great time meeting your neighbors and letting the kids have an amazing time at their neighborhood ice cream social!
