The shark party!

Happy 9th Birthday Cameron!
Today is April Fool's Day..... but it is also my sweet little "baby" boy's 9th birthday. It is SO hard for me to believe that I have a NINE year old.....and a four year old.........AND a one year old! But I would not change it for anything. These boys are definitely the sunshine in my world!

So, over the weekend we celebrated Cameron's birthday with a small party with some school friends. After having so many "larger" parties, I have to say, this one being a smaller number was like a breath of fresh air. It was much more enjoyable from my perspective. And, actually, Cameron seemed to enjoy it just as much.

As you can tell, Cameron requested a shark theme this year. At first, I was perplexed. "What to do...?" Then, while browsing some blogs one day, I stumbled upon Silverbox Creation's shark party invite and I was in love! I decided to "mimic" her idea, but also "change it up a bit." So, together Cameron and I created and handmade the shark party invite. We both loved the outcome. The invites were individually boxed with blue shredded paper (actually Easter grass!) to make it look like water! Then the shark and invite laid on top. I figured, what child would not enjoy getting a package in the mail with their name on it??!!!

The party, as I mentioned, was only a few friends from school and our family. Very "cozy!" We could not have asked for a more beautiful day. Perfect for setting up in the backyard. I had made life preservers from wreath forms wrapped in streamer paper and then made name tags to tie on them. Each one hung on the back of the boy's chairs. Too cute!
While I had planned a couple of games, the boys were just as happy throwing the football and playing in the clubhouse. We did play "crab walk races" and then "shark out of water." Basically, "shark out of water" was a race to see who could keep their tissue paper shark stuck on the bottom of their straw while they raced to the finish line! Once they got the hang of it, they liked it!

Our menu consisted of "shark bite" sandwiches (peanut butter and jelly with shark bites cut out on the corners!), goldfish, "seaweed sticks" (actually cheese sticks) and sea water to wash it all down (aka ocean blue Gatorade!). Then, instead of a cake, since Cameron does not care for cake, we made cupcakes with ocean blue icing and put shark fins on the top. Then made powdered sugar doughnuts (Cameron's favorite!!) look like life preservers! They looked super super cute on the cake stand with brown sugar as sand!!!! My favorite part of the party!

Happy Birthday my sweet Cameron! I love you!!