So what do you do when you have two kids who have birthdays 5 days apart and yet want different themes for the party this year? First, you have a moment of insanity, and think, “oh yes, two parties wouldn’t be that hard to pull off. Let’s do that.” But then you look at your life and how you hardly have time to feed yourself or clean the toilet and wisely re-think this decision. So a mishmash of 6 and 9-year old interests results in:
Before I move on, I must put a huge shout out to my creative kindred spirit, Mikah Neff, for designing these awesome invites. I had no idea how to communicate the theme of Art and Sharks and without any guidance whatsoever, Mikah came up with that incredible design. I have cool friends 🙂
When asked what she would like to be when she grows up, Ramona will inform you that she is going to be an artist. She will also tell you that this means she doesn’t have to learn how to read because she will just be making beautiful art. Let’s see how that goes for her in the long-run…*Mom and Dad grimace*
Penny has carried on her fight for the well-being of our sharp-toothed friends and their right to a life out of the shark-fin soup pot. She has also decided she would like to be a marine biologist. And thus Art and Sharks became the theme!
So what do you do at an Art and Sharks party? Pictures really explain it the best…
Kids exploring our backyard and visiting our chickens
Balance beam game in shark infested waters
Arts and crafts free-for-all table! Ramona prefers projects without structure, and so do apparently most kids…
Pin the fin- just can’t get away from this classic party game, no matter what the theme
No elaborate cake this year (I know…clutch the pearls!)- but I did carve a pretty nifty watermelon shark. It’s actually way easier than carving a pumpkin and way more yummy
Ok, so I know there was no epic cake, but that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t up to my elbows in cake prep this week. To go with the arts theme, I thought I would make a mini cake for each child and they could decorate their own cake however they liked. The kids just couldn’t wait to get their hands on the buttercream and fondant- it was definitely the highlight of the party.
After a brief instruction about how to roll out fondant, the kids were off and running with their delicious creations…
Did you know you can paint fondant with food coloring? Ramona was finding her muse in no time…
Sorry Amelia- you slipped away without a pic of your beautiful cake! But I know it came out so cute!
Two amazing girls making birthday wishes
Some of you may be familiar with Penny’s last fundraiser and how she likes to raise the neighborhood awareness of shark cruelty. The party was just another platform to further her cause. We collected over $20 in spare change from her birthday guests to donate to the the Wildaid shark fund. Such a giving heart and smart too- Penny, you’ve got this marine biology dream in the bag.
After 4 major family birthdays in the past month, I’m ready to retire the party supplies and go on vacation. But I love the creativity of these amazing little people, how unique they are growing up to be, and how I get to be their mom. It will be interesting if we get another crazy mishmashed theme again next year…unicorns and spelunking? Superheros and roller derby? Only time will tell what these spunky girls will come up with next.
*This post is dedicated to my Dad (Grandbear). He would have loved to have been there and tell the kids he was the troll in the basement. He would have sang the short version of the birthday song (This is your birthday song, it isn’t very long, hey!), tell me about 10 times how proud he was of me, and watched with joy as they opened gifts, never taking a single moment for granted. You are so missed, Dad!