Gwen's Birthday Party

Saturday we threw Gwen her "first ever birfsday party" and it was awesome!! Not all the kids we were expecting showed up, but we had a blast with the ones that did. Gwen decided that she wanted an Ariel party, but for the sake of the little boys we were inviting to the party as well, I made it into an Under The Sea party. So here's how we decorated my parents house:

The blue stuff going down the stairs is supposed to be waves. I got a huge blue plastic tablecloth at a party store and cut it into strips and then cut the dips in each strip to look like waves. I also took a Nature's Valley Cosco-sized Granola Bar box and cut it apart on the edges of the box. I then used one of the thin sized and larger sized pieces to make a "pattern" for different sized "planks of wood" which I traced and cut out of the massive amount of U-Haul boxes we have from moving out here. I then cut a large hole in the middle, big enough for the kids to crawl through (it was the "cause" of the ship sinking in the first place...lol) and then drew the nails on. Had to do some extra work to it in order to get it to stand up where I wanted it (and much thanks to my Dad for figuring it all out) but it worked out pretty cool.

I gave the kids some fish masks to wear when they first got here so they had something to play with while we were waiting for everyone else to arrive (besides popping balloons). Not everyone wanted one, but those who did had a blast with them. I didn't get any pictures of the kids with them on at the party, but here's some from today:

Gracie

My niece Mae

After everyone arrived, we played pin the crown on Ariels head. K, the crowns were stickers, so there was no pinning involved, but again-the kids had fun. And again-no pictures of the kids doing this. Gwen's cousins Aidan and Mae came the closest to winning, and whether that's because they're much taller than the other kids, or if it's because they peeked (Mae admitted to peeking) I'm not sure. But I had planned on giving each one of the kids a prize, cause who wants crying kids at a birthday party because they didn't win and someone else did?

So one of the things I thought of were fishing poles. They go along with fish and the sea...or at least, they do in my mind. So we bought a bunch of dowels, some twine, and magnets. Robbie drilled a hole through the top of the dowel and then tied the twine through and around the hole to get it to stay. The kids were thrilled, and even more excited when I told them that they were each going to get 2 fish and get to color them too (with some cool paint markers) and then take them home. We ordered some wooden fish from Woodworks Ltd. (http://www.craftparts.com/) cause they have all sorts of cool stuff for your home, toys or crafts. The magnets were adhesive on one side, so I just cut them up and stuck a small magnet on both sides of the fish. Well, we tried using a paper clip at first as the hook for the fishing pole, but that didn't work, so we ended up cutting more magnets and sticking them together with the string inbetween the two, and that worked out pretty good. Here's some pics of the finished fish.

Gwen's fish

Gracie's fish

After painting the fish, we went on a treasure hunt. We started out in the family room, and I read them the first clue (I made them all up, thank you): By all the shoes...Is the front door...That's where your clue is...It will tell you more. They ran to the door, found the clue, and I read the second clue to them: You'll find the next clue...On a chair...In the room with the big table (the Dining Room)...If you dare. So the kids searched each chair and found the clue which I then read to them. The third clue: In the kitchen closet...Is your next clue...It will tell you...What to do. By this time we had a few tears from some of the kids because they hadn't found a clue yet (other kids got to them first) but most were still having fun. The fourth clue: In the book room (Living Room/Library)...Is a special piano seat...The clue there...Will help you find your treat. The kids got all excited when they heard the word treat and the tears were forgotten as they raced to find the next clue. Clue 5: Find the sunken ship (hahaha...there was a reason for me making that other than using it for a decoration!!)...It has something to hide...Crawl through it's hole...And find what's inside. And hidden behind the sunken ship...a treasure chest full of goody bags!! Woo hoo!!

But that's not all that I had planned. I let the kids have their gift bags before we were finished because we needed SOMETHING to put the pinata candy in. Hooray for pinatas!! I got a shark pinata because in the Little Mermaid movie, Ariel is in a sunken ship when she and Flounder have to fight off and run away from a shark. Also thought a shark would be cool since we got rubber shark tooth necklaces for the kids goody bags...have to slay a shark in order to get shark teeth!!

Gwen's friend Porter having a turn

Alex and his mom Katie, Grace, Mae, Aidan and Lily (Gwen's hiding on the couch to the side)

Candy Time!!

After the pinata we let Gwen open her presents. And she got some cool stuff too. She got bracelets, a Dora grow it yourself garden, Ariel jellybeans, a decorate your own mirror kit, a magnetic dress up ballerina doll, Ariel stickers and a paint your own princess tea set. Lots of fun times to be had both for her, Gracie and mommy (hahaha...ummm...maybe not so much for me) this week!!

While most of this was going on, my mom was helping out by finishing the cupcakes for me. I decided that with little kids it might be easier to do cupcakes than a normal cake (that, and I forgot to order one ahead of time, so I had to make something anyways). On top of Gwen's cupcake we put an Ariel candle, but on all the other cupcakes we had blue icing, a sweedish fish and some green gummy candy cut to look like seaweed (the red fish swimming through the green seaweed...cool!!). I also used cake decorating gel (blue) to make "waves" on the top of the cupcake. The kids loved them, and even some of the moms had one.

All in all it turned out great, the kids had fun, and I'm glad it's over!! Hooray for some relaxation (ha ha ha ha...like that ever happens!!). So glad my peanut had fun!!!