caroline is still talking about her fish party from a couple of weekends ago. it was so exciting to transform our church fellowship hall into an under the sea experience! (not sure if brian thought it was as exciting, but he was a good sport...)
caroline is saying, "c'mon in! the water's great! just watch out for those mean sharks!"
we strung up a ton of streamers across the room to look like waves...
then we put up this super-long coral reef mural across the room. we didn't need to use the whole fellowship hall for the party, so the mural hid all the tables on the other half of the room! brian gets major props for rigging this thing up with fishing line and packing tape! we got it up the night before, and the next morning, it was still up! and as if brian had not unrolled enough fishing line, i kept throwing inflatable fish and turtles at him to hang.... aren't they cute!? (there are also little sea creatures on the tables, but i forgot to take a close-up of them.)
here is what our guests saw when they walked in the door, though i took this before we brian hung the fish.
here's a close-up of the birthday girl's table. notice the adorable fishy "happy birthday" sign made by none other than aunt kristie. :) she is quite the birthday-sign-makin'-machine!
across from the beautiful aquarium wall was..... a wall full of extra chairs. it was ridiculous to even consider moving them (and my streamer-mural-fish-hangin' husband would have quickly vetoed that idea!), and i tried so hard to just get over the fact that there were stacks of chairs in the midst of my otherwise totally decorated party room. well. we all know i had to do something with them. we had some leftover streamers and tablecloths, and voila! a dangerous wall of rocks! (i know... rocks aren't usually blue...just humor me!)
while i'm giving you the tour, i'll go ahead and show the fish cake my mom created! i was so pleased with how it turned out! my mom is so patient to endure the gazillion emails that i send with cake (and invitation) ideas. and not to mention that i am kinda particular about what i want.... i guess after 30 years, she's gotten used to it. :) thanks mom!!! so check out the cake... and see the cute little bubbles!?
we also served blue punch. (i forgot to take a picture until it was almost gone...)
and the fish on the cups were "swimming" in the punch!
we let the adults try to figure out how many goldfish were in the jar (884, i think. i've already forgotten. but i did count them all!) uncle jeff even whipped out his phone calculator to estimate the number of goldfish, and he won by only being 100 or so off!!
when caroline's friends arrived, they got right to work making an aquarium "i-spy" bottle. they filled an empty water bottle with tiny little objects, mixed in with aquarium rocks. there were things like birthday confetti, shells, googly eyes, and buttons.
this was a fun little party favor that will keep the kids busy for awhile!
after they finished making their i-spy bottles, the kids floated on over to the fishing hole. this was really fun for the kids till all the really strong magnets got stuck together and the poles got all tangled up. :) ha! but it lasted longer than i expected. and those three little boys had so much fun. (i think the one on the left is the one that tangled up all the poles!)
we also had the little photo prop set up that was pretty funny. i caught a few kids on camera, but i didn't take time to get everyone's pictures in it. i really wish i had. the party just went way too quickly! here is sweet lola with yet another great expression! and her daddy is a diver, which makes this even cuter to me.
our last game was a fishing worm relay game. my kids love sour gummy worms, and they were SO excited about this game! i made little fishing poles out of bendable straws, and they actually worked really well. i wasn't sure about how they would hold up since this was created in my foggy mommy brain! here are the little fishing poles...
we divided everyone up into boys vs. girls. i explained to the kids that they had to run down to the end, get a fishing pole, come back and feed the worm to the next person in line. after that "fish" had eaten the worm, it was their turn to run and go get a fishing pole. apparently, this was most of the kids' first time to play a relay game! and apparently, i failed to explicitly instruct them to wait until they were first in line to go...
that was the beginning of the stampede down to those fishing poles! look at the adults' faces! we all had a good laugh over that one. and then we tried it again, this time only letting one pair of cattle out of the gates at a time. (i'm too tired to make that into something catchy and fishy... so excuse the out of place cattle talk!)
ethan was SO excited to play this game! he is being fed by "the other caroline"--ohhhh what a pair those two carolines are gonna be in the years to come!
here's "our caroline" taking a bite. she quite the gummy worm expert.
the adults know by now that they are not exempt from games at our parties!!
but they were such good sports! (i guess this beats being turned into zebras!!)
after the silly fishing worm game, it was time for cake! you don't think this birthday girl wants cake, do you?!
(did you see her sweet little fish shirt that my mom whipped up the week of her party!?)
she blew 'em all out this time! man, i can't believe she's 3.
look at caroline sneaking a little icing! atta girl! she earned herself that piece in that particular spot by digging in to the icing several more times.
chowin' down on cake- karina, caroline, caroline, and ethan. ethan is saying, "hey mom! dad! get amelia and come take a family picture!" (as if kids beg to take family pictures...)
so here we are! one big happy family! we tried to hurry because everyone is waiting on us to eat cake!
(yes, ethan's eye looks horrible. yes, he had pink eye. yes, i took him to the dr. the day before the party. yes, the dr. told me he would not be contagious at the party. yes, i told ethan to wash his hands if he touched his eye. yes, his eye got worse the next week, and yes, i think the dr. should have told me that he had viral pink eye, which is contagious for much longer. yes, i worried the next week that we'd handed out pink eye as a party favor. no, to my knowledge, i don't think we did. yes, i'm very sorry if we gave your child pink eye. yes, ethan got cleared by our optometrist friend last week. yes, we will be going to see him first next time. yes, i am through with this disclaimer!)
and finally.... present time!!!!!! aren't we all glad that these weren't all wrapped presents for her to meticulously unwrap?!?!
caroline was so solemn as she opened gifts. i could tell that she liked each present that she opened, but she did not crack a smile or show any excitement at all. i was really surprised.
i was just as excited as she was about this little potty from karina! it is so cute! she loved it... but no smile.
and then she recognized gram's present that she had been eyeing since we arrived that morning. she completely lit up when she saw the gift from gram! she is saying, "for me?!" i sure do love this girl...
caroline was so blessed to be able to celebrate her birthday with all of her grandparents and one of her great-grandmothers!
first is her great-grandma, grandma joy, and papa; then nana and pappy; and finally, gram
and somehow, all the grandparents got out of playing the relay game.... hmmm, we will have to change that next year! (though my dad may have played... i can't remember.)
the party guests took home their i-spy bottles and one little inflatable fish. caroline made sure that everyone had a fish, including olivia, "the other caroline's" sister. olivia is just one day older than amelia! and yes, she is walking!!! already!!
speaking of amelia, she did not spend the whole party time in this pack-n-play. she was rescued by many a grandmother, don't you worry. (i think i smelled 5 different perfumes on her when we left that day!) this pack-n-play was a life saver as we were setting up, though. she was pretty content in there, though she is giving a look like "can someone puh-lease get me out of here?!"
so another birthday party is behind us. it sure was a fun one. and it sure was an anticipated one. and what is she already talking about for next year?! a crab party!
oh, caroline! she is three. she is learning so much every day, and she just can't wait to do everything like her big brother ("when i'm older like efan!"). even on the night of her birthday, we were driving in the car, and she asked, "am i still three?!" yes, honey, you are. let's take it one year at a time, please! we thank God for our birthday girl, even if she is trying to grow up way too fast!
this concludes the fish party. please dry yourself off, and now let's think TURKEYS!
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