A Shark Party!

Time is flying this summer – how is it almost August already?!  I realized recently that I need to start planning my summer baby’s next party, because he turns 4 at the end of August.  WOW!  Crazy to think about…  In honor of H’s upcoming birthday, I thought now would be a good time to start recapping his past birthday parties.

Our first house had a pool, so with an August birthday I wanted to have a pool party.  Plus, our little H-bug had (still has) such a feisty personality, I figured a shark theme would be perfect!  In fact, I think it’s shark week right now, if you want to steal the cupcake ideas or something???  Haha!

Invitations:

I made a simple invitation using Microsoft office, and emailing it out to our friends.  For other parties, I downloaded a free font that matched the theme (like the Dr. Seuss party, Dinosaur party, and Mickey party), but for this party I thought the standard “Papyrus” font gave a cool “shark attack-ish” effect.  That’s the special font shown for the name on the invite (and “ONE” in the birthday sign below):

Decor:

For the front door, I made a birthday sign:

I kept the birthday wreath tradition alive (see E’s on his door, and H’s on his door now), by using a wire wreath frame, plastic sharks, fishing line (also great for garland and mobiles!), and hot glue.  I covered the back of the wreath with blue felt to finish it off, which helped give it a clean look in the mirror reflection. It’s still holding up, but it’s definitely not the sturdiest wreath I’ve ever made.  If I were to make it again today, I might try using another glue to reinforce the shark placement (maybe gorilla glue?).  I used extra sharks for the food and cake table 🙂

I also made a banner with a picture of H that was representative of each previous month of life.  You can see it hanging on the back wall in these pictures, but I couldn’t find any close-ups.

I also got a birthday book for guests at his party to sign (did this for E’s first birthday, too), so he can read that on his 18th birthday.

Food and Dessert:

We go in and out of eating primal/keto-ish, which we were at the time of this party, so we kept the food really simple: fruit and veggie platters, a watermelon feta salad (our go-to summer salad), and buffalo chicken casserole (SO GOOD!) with tortillas to make tacos, if desired (this recipe is also great, and much cheaper than buying the pre-made tortilla’s).

For dessert I made strawberry cupcakes, which I filled with homemade strawberry filling (you could use preserves for a shortcut) to make them more “shark attack-ish” (if I keep using that phrase, does it make it more legit?  haha!).  I topped each with a chocolate shark fin (I just cut the fins out free-hand when solidified enough from a chocolate fudge recipe).   I used the same cake and frosting recipes as the cupcakes for his smash cake, and added some shark fins to circle the candle 🙂

OH YEAH – we also had some “salt water” taffy with gummy sharks at the dessert table (I KNOW – somebody stop me!  LOL!)…

Favors and Birthday Outfit:

I kept the favors really simple – some squirt shark toys, and shark tattoos.

I got a personalized onesie from Etsy for the birthday boy, and safety pinned a “fin” (a felt fin I sewed together and stuck a piece of cardboard into for stability) to his back 🙂

Overall, I would say the party was a success! Cannot believe it was almost 4 years ago already…

Also, update on the fireplace situation – we have a gas line installed, and should have electrical run to the fireplace by the end of the week!  Maybe we’ll have this project done before his 4th birthday party?!