O'FISH'ally Three!

Kamden is "O'FISH'ally Three!" Even though our family was unable to fly down this year for his birthday party, we still ended up throwing him the cutest under the sea themed party! Since we now live at the beach in Fort Lauderdale, FL, Kamden has recently developed a love for the ocean and all things sea animals! We thought it would be a fun and suitable theme for his 3rd birthday party.

O'FISH'ally Three party decorations

I had so much fun party planning for this theme, the options really are endless. I also made time to hand paint three wall murals on leftover bulletin board paper from work. It brought back much joy to take up one of my old favorite hobbies, even if it was just for this party! The murals also added so much life to the party and decorated the room so nicely. We used our pool house again this year at no charge, so it was convenient and also saved us money... score! Painting these murals also was nearly free (just had to buy a few paints and $1 sponge brushes) and provided an inexpensive but impressive decor. Kamden also had fun helping and watching me paint! I also made a submarine for a photo prop. I used a tri-fold foam poster board and spray painted it yellow and cut it out in the shape of a submarine. I cut two large circles for port holes and used the leftover scraps to make the telescope with Kamden's name and the number 3 on top. I also made one of those classic ocean direction signs you see at the beach sometimes. I actually looked up how far away each major ocean was from us and typed it up on the computer using Microsoft Word. Then I printed them out on bright neon colored paper. I made sure the edges were jagged so that it looked more authentic and then glued them to a post and stuck them down in a leftover clay pot I had from last year's party. For party favors for the kids, I found sand buckets with shovels at the Dollar Tree and attached a little thank you riddle to the handle. For the kids activity, I found foam sun visors at Michael's and used the leftover foam stickers from last year's party so the kids could decorate their hats. 

Fish cake, Goldfish bar, fish shaped sandwiches, "Catch of the Day", "Bait", "Octodogs" and Conch Shells

The themed food took some time, but wasn't too difficult to make at home. Again, with an under the sea theme, the ideas here are limitless. First for the cake, I thought of this cute idea to have a cake and cupcake combo in the shape of a fish. Since Publix Bakery is just around the corner from where we live and they are our favorite local bake shop, I explained my idea to them and they had no problem making it. I thought they did an incredible job and it was exactly what I had in mind. Since it was hard to write on this cake, I made a paper flag to stick in the fish that said "Happy 3rd Birthday Kamden!" Kamden absolutely went wild over this cake... as you can see he couldn't wait to dig his hands in it! 

Kamden's O"FISH'ally Three Birthday Menu:

Conch Shells and Cheese

Fish Sandwiches

Goldfish Bar

Catch of The Day

Bait

Octodogs

Octopops

Clam Cookies

Shark Teeth

Octopus Hummus Dip

Sand Dollars

Aquariums

Blue Hawaiian Punch

Water

The main dish was the homemade "Conch Shells and Cheese", which was macaroni and cheese I made in the crock pot. I used my favorite recipe and opted for large seashells instead of elbow noodles. The crock pot allowed us to serve it hot and it was so delicious, there wasn't any leftover at the end of the party! Everyone loved it. The rest of the food were mainly themed snack foods, that were also a huge hit. Pepperidge Farm started making flat bread in the shape of fish, so we had fish shaped sandwiches one was peanut butter and honey on wheat and the other was pimento cheese on white. I also found 3 tiny goldfish bowls at the Dollar Tree and we had a "Goldfish bar" with three different kinds of goldfish crackers. I also cooked hot dogs and cut them and half and then made eight slice on the ends for legs, served with a tiny bowl of ketchup for dipping. These were the "Octodogs" and people really got a kick out of these! The "Catch of the Day" was a bowl of Swedish fish and the Aquariums were blue jello and gummy fish in clear plastic cups. The "Bait" were gummy worms and thick sliced white cheese in triangles were "Shark Teeth." I also bought some hummus dip and then cut out an orange pepper to look like an "Octopus", served with a side of pita rolls as "Sand Dollars." I also made "Clam Cookies" with a pearl. These were Pepperidge Farm lemon cookies, that look like clam shells. You put some blue cookie icing on the bottom cookie, topped with a pearl looking candy and carefully place the second cookie on top. Then apply some candy eyes with a tiny bit of cookie icing. I also made some "Octopops" by taking lollipops and wrapping them in colorful fabric then tying matching pipe cleaners under to make eight legs and gluing on tiny eyeballs. To display them I just used an old box top spray painted yellow (from the leftover submarine project) and poked holes in the top to get them to stand up. I also made food tent labels on the computer to display the names near all of the themed food. All so fun, cute and not too hard to make! To tie in the theme, I wrapped the green utensils in orange napkins and used twine that looked like rope to to tie them up with a white life saver to look like raft. Lastly, I put the ice in a large sand castle bucket with a shovel as the ice scoop to serve with water and blue Hawaiian punch. 

Kamden loved his fish cake and the kids had fun making sun visors!

This year was the first year Kamden was really able to open up his birthday presents on his own. I sat nearby to help him, but to also make sure to teach him when you open a gift to see who it is from and acknowledge them. We feel it is so important to teach your children to be grateful for the gifts they receive and to be thankful to those people who are nice enough to give them. He is at the age now where he is starting to understand this and what better time to start!? He really loved all of his new toys and his friend at school wanted to help dig into them too!

Kamden is now big enough to open his presents by himself!

Our family wasn't able to make the trip down from North Carolina, but Kamden had a few friends from his preschool attend, along with two of my co-workers from work Rosemary and her son and nephew and Shavanah and her husband Marcelo, who is also in Optometry school with Keith, and their newborn baby girl. Some of Keith's closest friends from school also came by- Justin, Kelsey, Tommy, Lawrence and the Underhills. Our friends and next door neighbors, Janet and Steve, also made it out and they adore Kamden so much!

Everyone had so much fun!

At the end of the party, some of us went swimming! Kamden loves to swim and loves the water. His friend Owen swam with him. We all had a great time making this birthday very special for Kamden. You could really tell that he loved and enjoyed every minute of it!