Inspiration

It has started.... ! The beginnings of Caleb's 4th Birthday. We talked with him on several occasions trying to come up with the best party ideas. A marshmallow party, a monster party, a camping party, a bike party, an outer space party, a shark party, a cowboys and Indians party, etc. I drew pictures of three party ideas for him and then he finally settled on a Cowboy and Indian party. Although I am saving a few of these ideas for future Birthdays. I thought all along Cowboy party would be fun. He was really pulling for a shark party though- I tried to remind him we just had an ocean party. Once I told him about guns and bows and arrows he was sold. ugh! I HATE guns. For some reason I my son LOVES guns. I thought maybe this party will help get it out of his system? Who knows. An old fashioned cowboy party- toy pistols, hats, a western town and a Tee-pee. This should be fun. It is kinda hard to plan an event like this around Christmas time but since this is my fourth time around I am starting to get the hang of it! Already got 4 fridge boxes in the car port ready to be turned into a western town once my husband gets inspired. I started with picking up some cowboy figures at Kmart.



Today I finished the invitations. I started out with a standard "WANTED" invite. I was going to put a picture of Caleb wearing a cowboy hat with the picture of each kid I am inviting. But it didn't really incorporate Native Americans into the theme. So I kept searching for ideas. I hope I am not in trouble for this- but I found the most adorable picture of vintage cowboys and Native Americans online and I formed the invitations around it. I absolutely love it! I went to Micheal's looking for paper to print it on and found some great brown paper with brown envelopes. I used a coupon and got them for about $5. I also just happened to see these stars on the sticker aisle. I love the invitations. Oh- found free western fonts online and some western wording and here they are!

So I am searching the ends of the earth for cheap pistols. yes. I can only find them one spot but there is a minimum order that I don't quite meet. So still searching. I bought some mini horsey's on a stick at the dollar store! Quite funny but I think they will be better then the regular sized ones just because kids will be running around with them. Less tripping maybe?

My main event. I think- fingers crossed- we will have a REAL pony!!! In my carport. ha! I explained my land, house, hill etc and the lady said the pony would be fine. AND although it is more more then most people spend on a kids party, it was still pretty cheap. I might skip food this year? Just have cake and ice cream? I am so excited about the pony rides! in my carport! Oh it will be hilarious. I'd love to set up my cardboard town outside but I really have hardly any yard so it may have to be in the living room.

Tomorrow- A pendent banner, Native American headbands,

The PARTY!

So the party is over! I couldn't blog right before the party because literally every waking, non baby moment I was working on everything. I had SO much fun designing this party. I can only get away with sparkly and glittery with a boy when he is a baby, so I dazzled as much as a could
The night I made the cake I think I started frosting it at like 10pm. I knew I was in for an allnighter. I turned on some piano music and lit my little candle and had "my moment" I just enjoyed decorating and frosting that cake. Now- it didn't turn out as glorious as I had hoped. The frosting was kinda thick and just messy looking. I wanted it to look like water, and my fondant pieces weren't chiseled or precise (I did make those earlier) and they got a little squished in storage. BUT I did the best I could until 3 am and then I hit the hay. I bought 2 fish earlier that day and they were on the counter flipping out- swimming all over the place I guess since all the lights were on. I really wanted them to be flipping out and swimming all over the place during the party, but they were tired and stayed on the bottom! I don't even know if the kids noticed them. Caleb of course loves them- needless to say we have an aquarium now! So here are the pictures.

Family Picture! Caleb as a seagull, Daddy as a crab (he had more to his costume but he wouldn't wear the red, kid sized M&M costume inside out to give him a crab belly. I think when I mentioned red sweat pants he freaked! HA!) Noah had a cute little crabby outfit on and I wore a green sparkly dress- reminiscent of a mermaid. Sadly.... I never had the time to make the mermaid costume. It would have been fun to make but- thank goodness I only allow myself a month on these birthday parties- other wise- it would be very very bad!




Ok so here is the dining room. We put Blue cellophane on the top of the wall and a fishy scene setter on the bottom of the wall. The big lipped fish with some seaweed hung in the corner. I had a really pretty seaweed net on the light. It had seahorse and crab ornaments in it. The table cloth was a sparkly blue with a fish net as a table runner. I found glittery floral picks at Michael's in the Christmas section that looked like ocean stuff and I bought some broken starfish (99 cents) but they were fine and crabs at AC Moore. Then of course the Fish on either side of the cake.





Peanut butter and Jellyfish, I made a jello jellyfish. But I didn't have time to think of how to properly display him! He had carrot legs along with jello legs. I wanted him to look more real but gave hima frosting face like 3 seconds before party started
Oysters
Fruit dip with an octopus made out of a plum and plum peels.
Sea Urchins- Meraguines. These are soooo good. The first batch I made were too big. I think they are only good when they are little- like little tastes of them. They are crunchy and then melt and are so yummy and pretty easy to make.
Octodogs

Crab dip. I should have made a star shaped bread bowl, My mom made this right before the party. So it was yummy and warm. To save time we just put rolls in the shape of a star.
A fun kids punch. Blue koolaid and icecreamNoah's smash cake. I stuck a little bit of frosting on the crab to make it look like water from the wave on the crab, but it just looks messy :( boo. Oh well. It was so cute!
More cake




The fish scene in the dining room. Noah loved it.
Yes, I made him a crazy highchair throne. I am surprised to say he didn't even notice it. I thought he might rip it up- but he didn't. The seahorse was above him with some more seaweed type things
We covered ALL the windows in the welcome landing and in the living room with blue cellophane. Even the skylight. I made fish out of construction paper and glu gunned them to fishing wire and then Erik made a fishing wire grid system. There were no tacks- maybe one in the dining room- but magnets or for the cellophane reusable tape on the glass of the windows.
You can see the tissue paper seaweed. I wadded up tissue paper and strung it together on fishing line. It added a dimension to the seaweed look. The rest of the sea weed was just green steamer and different shades of green curling ribbon. I got the sparkly wet look by tossing iridescent grass (You put it in gift bags) all over the seaweed. the toostsie lollipops outside

The living room was just a mess of fish. all construction paper. I put another coral scene on the big window. I made a really cute birthday sign. This was the play area. We had 3 main play things, a ball pit (borrowed from my dad- who is storing it for my nephew) then the pools I found on clearance at Garden Ridge. I filled one of them with more balls and little inflatable fish I found on clearance at Party City. Then there were 2 big dolphin floats. That room was filled with lots of laughing and screaming. It was so fun! the favor bags.

In the upstairs living room I tied some twine up between windows and clothes pinned several 8x10 photos of Noah from birth until now. That was an idea I borrowed from my parents wedding anniversary party. I had pictures made of him every month. I really liked having that "tribute" to him. and showing off how much he changed over the past year.
So the kids all had a great time. I sugared them up and let them go bizsurk in the play area. I had the best time dreaming all of this up- of course many of the ideas came from pictures already out there on the web. I just added to them- or personalized them.
So in a few short months it will be Caleb's birthday..... See you then!

Everything Else

So, I have been very busy. My dining room table is an explosion of construction paper, glue, glitter, my trusty glue gun (I could write a love letter to whoever invented glue guns) stickers etc. It is crazy. We just kinda push everything to the side whenever it is time to eat. I found these adorable tootsie roll sea creatures online. I decided to make them since they cost like 2 dollars each! Caleb and I had fun. He still wants me to put mouths on them.





I made Noah's "throne" today. SO fun. I love it! and then I made seashells for the dining room chairs.


I am in the process of making some crazy tissue paper seaweed, bubbles, Birthday banners, favor bags and food name cards. I am trying to finish up the crafting this weekend so I can turn all of my attention to the cake and the rest of the food. I think I am going to serve one big happy adult beverage rather than buy beer. Am I stingy? I think some kind of festive drink my be fun rather than just plain old beer in a cooler. I should have a kids food side and a grownup food side... hmm... yes I really need to start nailing down the food. o crap- I have to get everything at the store too- o no. I better wrap up crafting.

Here are my bubbles, made out of plastic Christmas ornaments.

I made so many fish I needed to start hanging them up. Erik "wired" the living room and I just glue gunned all the fish onto fishing wire and then tied them up. I still plan to fill it with seaweed and bubbles and probably more fish. Noah looks up and says "ish" on a side note- I would prefer for him to just wake up on his birthday party day and see all of this- but realistically, it is hard to do all of this with him. So when he naps I decorate- early. Besides, I am sick of it by the time the party is over. Caleb's bug party drove me nuts when it was over- bugs everywhere, chaos- I just wanted to clean up and move on. This way they get to enjoy it a little longer. I am letting them play in the pool and blowup toys I got already. yup- that is how I rationalize preparing for the party early.
I love these sea horses. The flash kinda flattened it out a little, but I think it is so cute. bubbles, and shiny ribbon- textures for seaweed. Hopefully no one turns the fan on :) The end for today.

Productivity

Lots of stuff today! I made a cute little fish mobile and Erik even helped. He came up with the greatest idea! He will not allow any tacks or tape on the walls. So he yanked some really strong magnets out of some old computer hard drives and then hung the fish up with the magnets. My love is amazing :)

I found some really neat pool stuff at Garden Ridge for a total of $13 and Erik blew everything up for us. The kids were going nuts, I think Noah really likes the floats. I bought a giant whale float to hang in the welcome landing and he is Caleb's new BFF. So cute, he said "mommy can the whale watch my movie with me?" he has been going crazy riding him and I guess they needed some down time!



So I am the most excited about some dishes I am thinking about making. I saw a cute way to do an octopus and some oysters. I of course will take it to another level because my mind just keeps going- So here are my options- The octopus could be a fruit dip with an apple as the head of the octopus or it could be a chip dip with a red pepper as the head. Both could be colored with blue- so it seems like he is swimming.
The oysters could be crackers with like a cheese spread in the middle colored pink with a pearl onion in the middle or they could be vanilla wafers with pink frosting and a yogurt raisin
in the middle. OR another extreme I could dip the vanilla wafers in white chocolate and then put pink frosting and a yogurt raisin in the middle. hmmm just have to decide on the amount of time I will have for that one. SO savoury or sweet???? Kids love sweet- there will be adults at the party too.... I think I will also be serving peanut butter and jellyfish, shells and cheese and fish sticks. Pretty easy and kids love that kind of food.




Also working on some costumes. Yes friends- I am insane. Caleb wants to be a seagull. Ha! He came up with that all on his own- like asked if he could come to the party as a seagull. So funny, I told him that seagulls eat crabs and that it might be weird- but he insisted. So I am making him an easy easy seagull costume. Also- well there has to be a mermaid- right? I am trying to rope my sister into being the mermaid. I already bought her a shell bra!!! ha!!! Then she can paint kids faces or something.