Nothing yet. I put the ideas in my back pocket. I have medical stuff happening in February, so the earliest I could do anything would be April/ May time frame. Summer is not a great time because many people are traveling. So if I don't get my act together to do something informal, than I can use it for the birthday party which is fall.
I did sign him up for the event again and asked 2 boys if they wanted to join. If they do, then they can invite the rest of the boys that they are closer to. It's a public event that has a small fee. If they don't want to join there is always middle school boys at this event so he will always have a friend to play with. This is the least amount of effort on my part and with my upcoming medical stuff, my aim is to go easiest route while also contributing something.
Update: I had a basketball team party last night at our house. I was thinking his lunch table but basketball at his house just said basketball team to me. Yes I’m way late in this because we got a new patio and fixed our fence then went on vacation.
I would say it was more a party than a hangout. Pizza was served and I contacted all the parents to arrange it from out basketball roster. For one thing we don’t have the kids phone numbers at all. Everyone had a great time.
I also took his other friend out to play soccer (separate occasion).
Thank you everyone. This thread was helpful for both occasions, and I think I realized if the weather is nice and with our new patio we can fit more kids then I thought in the house. So that helps when I start planning his birthday party here.
ETA- for those that said they never have parties unless it is a birthday and only the rich do that, our event cost about $50 in food/ Gatorade and we have a ton of pizza/ chips/ Gatorade leftovers that we can just put as part of our regular grocery budget. Overall much more reasonable than hosting a birthday party at a venue or even a friends BBQ.
I am trying to lead by example and hoping to continue to scaffold. I think the lesson for this summer is make an effort, it's OK to just be social and have friends that aren't close friends and also keep on with the close friends. Overall, I think we are just in a much better place this summer than last summer especially for DS.
waverly great update! And agreed it’s not just rich people who have house parties. I find them to be a cheaper option than a lot of other events. We have one of the bigger houses out of our friends, so we’ve hosted, but everyone bring something. We usually supply the main and nonalcoholic drinks. We have a friend who owns a beer shop, so he handles that. And everyone fills in. That potluck style may be regional, but it’s the norm here, so it makes hosting team parties and family hang outs pretty easy.
formerlyak , I didn't designate it as potluck, but one family brought a 50 pack box of individual chips and the other one a huge tub of ice cream. I'm almost thinking team parties are easier than birthday parties because less expectations and more chipping in. I found this to be the case when another family hosted the soccer team although she included whole families and I didn't. But people brought everything!