Caleb is an odd child, as I have mentioned
before, but one of his odd traits is that he is interested in next to nothing. He is very picky about the toys he plays with and the shows he watches. He would rather socialize with people than do anything else. He has gotten better as the months have gone by though. He has some favorite toys and favorite shows now and one of his favorite shows is
Bubble Guppies.
I tried to do a Bubble Guppies themed party, but it was hard since (as with the Angry Birds) there aren't any party supplies with the faces and logo on it. I found a lot of different things on NickJr.com, which was very helpful, but it turned out to be part pool party, part fish/ocean and part Bubble Guppies theme.
We started out the party with an activity.
The kids made
fish shakers. They put different colored beads into small plastic bottles. Once done they received a baggie with the fins cut out of foam (each one got to pick the color they wanted) and some googly eyes to glue on at home.
Caleb also did an activity. Marble painting.
No touching is required for this "craft". I bought boxes with lids from Dollar Tree. They are the perfect size for this project. Joe cut out the pieces of paper to fit inside the boxes. I put glue dots in each corner and pressed it down just hard enough to stick, but not be on there for the long haul. Then I put 6 marbles in each box and put globs of red, blue and yellow acrylic paint (one color per two marbles). Let the child shake, shake, shake and this is what you end up with.
It's a new design each and every time. (No, you are no imagining things, it is a different colored container. This pic was taken another time we did it with some other friends, cause the pics from the party didn't turn out)
Afterward we headed outside to eat some veggies and dip
And...
Everyone seemed to like the food
The kids played in the pool and on the swing set after eating.
Those things you see floating in the pool are
sponge balls. The kids liked playing with them. Unfortunately, one fell apart. I will be sure to make them sturdier next time.
We also were suppose to play "
pin the tail on gil". Right before that I was feeling really sick (I think it was lack of sleep and the heat), so Joe took over. Everything was going great (so I'm told) until the blindfold came out. Elijah and Penelope refused to wear it, so Charlotte won by default (yay Charlotte!).
*Crafty Note* I put together the pieces in Photoshop. My brother-in-law works at Staples, so they did the oversize printing and laminating for me. Grommets were set with a Crop-A-Dile.
Everyone had enough of outside, so we came in and opened presents. One of Caleb's favorite presents was from his Grandma. It's a homemade blanket. He loves it and falls asleep with it every night.
After presents was dessert. We had cupcakes decorated like fish.
or as I like to call them - Fish Cakes. We had a whole school of them shaped like a 1.
The kids got their favor buckets before they left.
We put some extra special goodies in there to go along with the bubbles and other things.
They got Bubble Bites... Actually Kix cereal (I designed, and Joe assembled the Bubble Bites packages)
And gummy letters spelling out each of their names
After all was said and done, I say it was another successful party.
Although, I don't know if I'll be doing another big party any time soon. Two in one year was enough for me (for now). Next year will be more low key in regards to birthdays, but I'm sure the boys will have fun and enjoy them no matter what we do.
