Baby Girl turned 7 this week. For 7 years I have loved her, cherished her, nurtured her, and laughed with her. It doesn't seem like it has been that long, but here she is.
And birthdays mean birthday parties.
I love planning birthday parties.
Every birthday I let my kids pick a theme for their birthday. Baby Girl has had:
Rubber Ducks
Farm
Butterflies
Tea Party
Cupcake
Nature Walk
This is a pretty great list. This year she picked well once again: Goldfish.
We settled on an Orange and Teal color scheme, with all of the plates and cup and whatnot in those colors.
And then there are favors. Now, I know "favors" are one of those hotly contested parenting issues, but let me put it to you this way: Thank You notes from the birthday girl are just not going to happen. I'm sorry. I wish I could do that, but it never makes it high enough on my priority list to make it happen.
That said: I promise to thank your child for coming, and for any gifts brought by sending them home with a favor. But not a "bag of dollar store junk and mini candy bars" favor. I hate those kind of favors.
I try to get favors that will actually get used and enjoyed.
The obvious choice for this particular theme was real honest to goodness carnival style goldfish. But I have ethical reasons for never gifting live animals, no matter how small. And foisting a live animal on unsuspecting parents isn't friendly. So, I had a friend make me these:
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| These adorable soaps can be found at The Virtuous Wife |
Little bitty goldfish in a bag SOAPS! Super cute, and non offensive. The kids can splish and splash in the bath with their new friend, and I am not on anyone's naughty list. Win-win.
Now for decor. I had so much fun with these. There are a ton of ideas on Pinterest, but I settled on these two pins: here and here.
This first one is super simple. I think I whipped up a dozen of them in less than 30 minutes. You just cut a wedge shhaped piece out of a paper plate and glue it to the opposite side. Add an eye and you are done. Of course you can add googly eyes (didn't have any) or draw on fins etc if you want. But I am all about minimum effort for maximum impact. And I think in the chaos of the party the "little details" tend to go unappreciated.
The next project is significantly more involved. These adorable fishy lanterns are still on the easy end of the spectrum, but a lot more steps. So here we go.
Step one: Purchase Orange Lanterns, Orange Construction Paper, and a Big Fat Black Sharpie. I also used an orange magic marker.
Step two: Assemble Lanterns thusly.
Step three: Draw fin and tail shapes in orange marker on the orange paper. Do leave a flat section that you can fold over to attach to the lantern. Cut Out.
Step four: Draw a mouth and eyes on white paper. I just colored it in with the sharpie rather than dealing with yet another color of paper. Cut these out as well. You should then have something that looks like this:
Step Five: Assembly. Now, I just didn't have enough hands to take pictures while I did this. But, the tail goes in the back, fins on the sides, and then make a cute smiley face on the front. Do make sure that you have the lantern right side up when you put the pieces on. You don't want your fish to go "belly up" when you hang it!
Step six: Hang them up! I used some blue yarn that I had hanging around, but you could use fishing line or whatever you happen to have. These aren't super heavy, so it doesn't need more than a staple or two to keep in in the ceiling.
Now the rest of Baby Girl's Decorations were crepe paper streamers and her birthday banner (each of my kids has a birthday banner that gets put up every year). Our house looked like a fun fishy paradise! I set the table with a blue table cloth and orange and blue plates, cups and utensils. I set out the bowl of soaps and a bowl of goldfish crackers.
And then, I made this rather awesome cake. This was actually pretty easy. I just layered and frosted a regular two layer cake. I stacked Kit Kats around the outside and then tied a ribbon around so that they would stay put. Then I filled in the top of the "barrel" with more frosting (I wish it would have been more blue, but we have artificial dye allergies, and the natural dyes just aren't as vibrant) and textured it with my spatula. Then I stuck goldfish crackers in the top. Viola! Fish in a Barrel Cake. Baby Girl loved it. The party was a great success!
Fishy Lantern Party Decoration:
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