Fishy Party -2yr- Go Fish!

In celebration of my daughter turning 2 years old, we decided to throw her a fishy" themed party.

INVITATIONS: My husband designed a 5x7 invitation on his computer which read: "You are o-FISH-ally invited to Lillia's 2nd birthday celebration!" He used a graphic of 2 goldfish (since she was turning 2) jumping out of a fishbowl and we had the invites printed at Costco.

DECORATIONS: It was a little hard shopping for decorations since it was Christmas time and because I specifically wanted fish décor (not other underwater creatures). Our colors were dark blue light blue and orange. Each 6 ft. table was covered with white paper and had 2 centerpieces each. Centerpieces were small glass bowls each filled with a little blue gravel and one feeder fish. Around the lip of the glass bowl was a small blue tag attached w/an orange ribbon that read "Happy Birthday Lillia." The centerpieces also served as party favors so I purchased small blue nets and small orange containers of fish food.

I created a label to put around the fish food that read "Fishy Mum-Mum more please!" because everyone knows when my daughter is hungry she asks for "mum-mum." Attached to each glass bowl were 2 balloons (orange and light blue and orange and dark blue alternating). In between the centerpieces I decorated the table with a little bit of fish confetti I found at a party store. I also found hanging fish decorations to hang from the ceiling.

The cake table had it's own fish bowl but it was large and contained 2 live goldfish. I had a large bundle of balloons and was able to find one huge mylar balloon of a group of fish.

My in-laws have a huge 52" flat screen TV so I put on "Finding Nemo" which if you look on the special features they have a virtual aquarium that allows you to project an aquarium screen on your TV.  It was a great addition to the overall look and feel of the room.

Along with the decorations I actually found an outfit for my daughter that was a tank top with 2 fish applique and a pair of cotton shorts designed with a fish print. It fit perfect with the decorations. I also found a sippy cup bowl plate and utensils all designed with fish that the birthday girl used special for that evening.

ACTIVITIES: We had about 30 adults and a dozen children attend the party.

As guest arrived I had a few games on the kiddie table to occupy the younger ones while they waited to eat dinner. We had Go Fish card games Let's Go Fishin' Game ( a classic that we all remember from childhood) and Freddy and His Flyin' Fish (a game that shoots fish in the air and has to be caught with a net). I had 2 other activities for kids after dinner. For the first one I found a black and white fish bowl clip art that I enlarged and printed on a 8.5x11 white sheet of card stock.

Each child decorated their fish bowl with fish foamy stickers I found at Walmart and then they colored their picture. I found another foam kit at Walmart in which each child could create and decorate their own tropical fish. They put stripes fins and eyes on their fish. Then I punched a small hole and tied a string on the fish to create an ornament for the kids to take home and hang on their Christmas tree. Parents thought this was a great idea. I hate to leave adults out of the fun so I had 2 games just for them.

The first game was called Anatomy of a Goldfish. I printed out a goldfish and had arrows pointing to the different parts of the fish. The parts of the fish were listed on the side and adults had to correctly name each body part. This is harder than you think because I used the technical terms to describe the body parts. The second game was a multiple choice quiz I found online containing random questions about goldfish. The adults enjoyed both games very much.

FOOD & CAKE: We catered food from a friend of my father-in-law and made sure we had a variety of seafood garlic shrimp panko mahimahi crab & artichoke dip and sushi. We included other meats and sides in case anyone had allergies. My mom is an expert cake decorator and has been designing cakes for years. She used a 9" cake pan to make a double layer banana cake (from scratch). She cut off one side of the circle to resemble a fishbowl and then decorated the cake to look like the picture we had on the invitation. Everyone commented that the cake looked phenomenal and tasted soooo good! There weren't any leftovers!

FAVORS: I took the invite to a local cookie bakery and she designed a cookie in the shape of a fishbowl with 2 fish swimming in it. This was also a big hit at the party as everyone loved the design of the favor. Children also got to take a live fish home (with approval from their parents) with the net and fish food. One more fishy addition both grandmas and I made sure we found birthday cards that contained a fish design and that we wrapped our presents in a fish-printed wrapping paper. I couldn't believe we were able to find those at Christmas time. I also found a small goldfish toy that I tied to my daughter's present.

All in all not bad for just 3 weeks of planning and during the busiest holiday season. "