An Ocean Birthday

Is anyone surprised that this 'shark' wanted to have an ocean-themed birthday? :) 

Gwen loves being 5!

A close up of the candy sea turtle on top of her 'personal' cake. I loved the blue chocolate pearls...

Gwen helped me bake the blue cupcakes with blueberries in them (her specific request), and she helped make the icing. She was tired of helping by the time we got to the 'putting the critters on top' phase, but she was willing to taste test all the candy to make sure it was edible. :)

I was very happy with the cupcakes-- you could say proud-- and was a little sad to see so many partially eaten cupcakes left on plates of little friends at the party. They really were tasty. I think there was just too much food in general. Next time fewer snacks, I think. It was just hard to decide what to leave out! When I get going on a theme... :)

ps. carving the watermelon was pretty fun and not too hard. I used toothpicks to 'hold in' the teeth that I accidentally removed from his gums by my too assertive knifing... :)

I enjoyed how simple and inexpensive the decorations were. Over the summer I found a big bag of blue and green streamers for 50 cents at a garage sale. Knowing that blue and green are Gwen's favorite colors, I snatched it up. It turns out those were the perfect items for her party! I used the blue to make these simple jellyfish, and the green for seaweed. 

 I think the jellyfish were one my favorite parts. :)

 

 the homemade treasure chest held the goody bags for our party guests! So fun!

 
The kids also made these easy fish tanks to hang in their rooms-- the glitter was very popular with the girls! ;)

 We played games too, but there are no pics because I was leading the gaming and Eric was wrestling Caroline (she did NOT enjoy the party with its accompanying friend "invasion" of her things). We did actual 'fishing' (the fish had ocean life actions on them. Very funny to watch the kids try out being jellyfish, dolphins, and eels!), played 'belly of the whale' (basically reverse musical chairs with a box for a whale that the kids crawled through while music played), and 'jellyfish jump' (hoola hoops layed out across the room--can't touch the tentacles!).

It was a wonderful party! Gwen LOVED being the center of attention!

About the birthday girl... where can I even begin? 

She is a bright, kind, eager to please child! She is healthy and strong, with an even temperament (though she is showing signs of entering a new and unique phase of testing limits). She is a very smart girl. I don't want to sound like I'm bragging, but well, I'm gonna go ahead and say I'm bragging. She can read very well, even books that she has never had read to her. She is the only child in her preschool class who already reads-- the teachers actually giver her opportunities to read to her class. She is the "model" to help encourage everyone else. Honestly, the positive peer admiration has proven to be a greater motivation than me. Her voluntary reading has increased by leaps and bounds in the past 2 months! She also counts to 100 and remembers advanced vocabulary for specific topics. I know she is intelligent and I LOVE it! I hope she continues to enjoy learning as much as she does right now! Her current favorite things: bugs and creepy crawlies (same as last year), oceans, and astronomy. She loves the planet mercury because it is so fast. :) She loves the Gospel of Jesus Christ-- she not only possesses a mature understanding of the gospel, but she tries very hard to follow Jesus. She is very sensitive to what it right and wrong. With the exception of her sister, she is also very compassionate and accommodating. We're still working on the sibling relationship. :) We are very proud of Gwen and love her very much! Happy birthday darling girl!