Gone Fishing Themed Birthday Party

Gone Fishing Themed Birthday Party

One year older and wiser too!
Well, that is the hope for my seven year old son anyway! If I could just get him to remember to turn in his homework I would call it a victory.

This year we celebrated his birthday with a fishing theme. He has been dying to go fishing and since we can't, this was the next best thing!

This party really was fun and easy. It was a pool party so that took up most of the entertainment and most of the decor I got at the dollar store.

I studied Pinterest for awhile and came up with a few ideas of my own. And it turned out perfect.
Sometimes I go all out crazy on decoration, but this time, I didn't. I am nine months pregnant after all and my son doesn't care about decor like my daughters do. So this little table, in a friend's pool house, was it. Simple. Easy.

 The decor was mostly edible which made clean up a breeze which made my husband happy. If you click on my pinterest link above it will take you to my idea board and there are links to find printable cards that say things like "Fish Bait", etc, but I was too lazy. So I went with pen and paper and stickers.

 Above: Swedish fish and gummy worms. Below: Ruffles and Fishy crackers.

This sign was in front of the party favors; little bags full of fishy crackers.

 The party favors:

 The prizes for the games. Gummy worms and Swedish fish.

 The cupcakes:

Because we had a pool, I only planned two games for this two hour party. We swam for an hour. Played games for about 30 minutes, then sang ahhpy birthday, did presents and swam until it was time to go home.

The Games:
Game number 1:
I totally forgot to get a picture for the first game so I borrowed one from  Kara's Party Ideas.

She shows you how to throw a super cute retro surf party. Check it out.

I bought a dowel from Walmart's craft section, cut a little notch in one end with my son's pocket knife and hot glued string to it. I cut the notch so the string would lay center on my make shift fishing pole. At then end of the string I hot glued two button magnets together to act as the hook.

I cut random fish out of old scrapbook paper and hot glued paper clips to their mouths.

Now you want to know the secret to making a "little kid game" work for big kids? Make it a timed activity. We had kids at this party aged 4-11 and everyone of them was engaged in this activity. They soon learned it wasn't as easy as they thought.

How many fish can you catch in 20 seconds? The winning catch was 6. Most kids only caught 3. It was so fun to watch. My husband timed and I took there catch off the line just to help them go faster.

Game number 2: Feed the Shark!
I free handed this majestic beast onto foam board. Cut it's mouth out with an exacto knife, made some teeth out of computer paper, glued them on and then glued the first foam bard to a second foam board for durability.

 I bought three plush fish from the dollar store, you can kind of see them in the bottom right hand corner. The goal was to feed the shark all three fish. Once again it was harder than it looked and kept all the kids engaged. Only the four year olds got to stand close to the shark, the rest had to stay behind a line created by a towel. Getting on her knees in the picture below was her own idea.

I don't think any of them got all three fish in. The game ended in a showdown between an 8 year old and an 11 year old. They both won prizes. Once again, super fun.
They have also wanted to keep playing these games everyday since the party.


We sang happy birthday,

Opened gifts,

And had one happy kid.

It really was a great time. We had it a little early because the baby is due right around his real birthday and I would have hated for him to miss out on a party. So thankful to everyone who came and made it so fun!

xoxo,
 Amy