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!