The Big 6 Ocean Birthday!!!

If you know me, you know I go bat shit banana crazy pants over P's birthday parties. It's the one big shindig a year we have a blast planning and throwing. They've always been in our backyard with a whole lot o' DIY gumption.

If you know me, you also know I go bat shit banana crazy pants taking pictures.

Well, this year things went a bit different! The big 6. We've entered a whole other hand in the grand digit count. With that other hand came change. And some pretty darn fun change at that!

When P and I started chatting about all things birthday, he immediately set the plan for an "under the ocean" theme. We went to San Diego in October, and he fell madly in love with all things salt water. Of course my Pinterest board blew up with ocean party ideas and games.

Mid party planning season, P started taking swim lessons at our local Rec Center. A couple weeks in, he and I got a crazy idea. What about a swimming under the ocean party? I started looking into it and next thing you know, bam! we found the perfect place.

Ok, so now the plans shifted to a non backyard throw down. There are pros and cons to this. First pro, I didn't have to plan or create any games and a bunch of activities!! The swimming was active enough. Pro two, weather. Since it's early April in CO, you never know what the weather will do and this year it has been cold and wet and snowy, so a backyard party could have been a disaster! We've been super super super lucky the past 5 birthdays. This year our luck would have run out. Pro three, no major overhaul of the house needed before pals arrive. Con one, need to figure out how to make all the groovy ideas and decorations portable. Con two, having to schedule around availability of facility.  We wound up having to party on a Friday afternoon, but since it was spring break it worked out fine. Con three, not really a con three, so there.

Well, I guess there may be a sort of con three. I didn't take hardly any pictures. But it's also kind of a pro. I was having too much fun to take any pictures! The swimming was awesome!!! The pool was nice and warm and with a zero grade entry, everyone was able to join in the fun. All the kids had a blast and I think the grown ups did too. We played sharks and crocodiles and piranhas. We did dolphin dives and rode the big slide and even played spinner dolphin and remora. Lots of splashing and giggling and zero clicking.

I managed to snap a few pics of the room we reserved for the second half of the soiree. This is where we had snacks, made a couple of crafts, sang happy birthday and had cake. My pal Erin helped me tape things all over the walls and make it look as festive as one can make a Rec room look. I used gym mats and bean bags and a couple of odd little couches they had. Didn't want to go the traditional table and chairs route.

The crafts were "ocean in a jar" (which were a big hit) and shark jaw cut outs (which were ok). We ate peanut butter and jelly fish sandwiches, fruit with banana dolphins and veggies with a red pepper octopus in ranch dip, some chips, shark fin jell-o cups, ocean water punch (tastes like being at the beach!!! I'll put the recipe at the end of this blog post) and all the kids got little bags to put gummy sharks, gummy turtles, Sweedish fish, gold fish crackers and big gum balls in to take home or sugar out on and go crazy right then and there.

The annual daddy makes the birthday cake tradition was handed over to me this year. Daddy has been swamped with training at work, so I took one for the team. I will say, it looked way better than it tasted. It was dry as a bone and both Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood would have sent me home. Next year, daddy will definitely take those reins back!

I think all in all we had a super awesome groovy fun time. Most important, I think P had the most super awesome groovy fun time of all! Here's to the big 6!!!

Ocean in a jar craft:
mason jars found at Walmart
filled just above halfway with water add one drop of blue food coloring
let children scoop in fish tank gravel and then pick out and add one seashell and two sea creatures
then have them add one pinch of glitter (we used green), then I poured in about and inch to two inches of baby oil and screwed the lid on tight. Voila!

Ocean Water punch:
1 packet blue raspberry lemonade Kool-Aid
3/4 c sugar
10 oz pina colada mix
2 qt. water
2 litre Sprite
stir and dive in!