"If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will -- to your surprise -- miss them profoundly."

--Thomas S. Monson, 2009







Saturday, January 28, 2012

Chloe's 5th Birthday Party!



Chloe had her FIFTH birthday party today! She is not officially 5 for a few more days still, but today was her party. She had a lot of fun!








She wanted a FISH themed party this year. We had blue balloons taped to the ceiling with blue and green ribbon tied to them, to give the house an under the sea feel. I made these invitations with "swimming" fish on them. The top part spins around on a little brad. Chloe colored and glued the fish on by herself. She loves to help!
















We had the last rotation of the invitation say, "You'll have a FIN-tastic time!"










Here are the cupcakes I made:







Multi-coloured fish! The scales, eyes, and lips were M+M's, and the fins are these orange slice candies. Fun to make! The girls had fun helping with this too!













We had fun planning out the goody bags. They had things like Goldfish crackers, Swedish Fish candies, fish stickers, and these little fish tanks! They are really just Swedish Fish candy in blue Jell-O that I put in little jars:






We planned out a whole bunch of fun fishy games too. I meant to put these pictures on the end of this post, but they ended up here instead. Here are some of the girls fishing for their goody bags. Izzy loved hooking them on the fishing rod on the other side:











We played a game where they had to eat like fish do--with no hands! They had to try to eat the donuts on a string with their hands behind their backs. A little messy, but fun! It was a little tricky to do with no hands.


















They made paper plate fish, with glued on aluminum foil for the scales:







They also made these homemade bottle aquariums. They filled empty bottles with glitter, ribbon, fake grass, craft balls, rocks, and of course, fish! It resembled aquariums and under the ocean, and when you turn the bottle upside down it is fun to watch things sink to the bottom, and float to the top.








We also played Pin The Fish On The Hook:








Most did a good job avoiding the hook!








I made this game, Fish For Your Name, where I put letters of their names on little fish, and put metal paperclips through the mouth of the toy fish. Then I made little fishing rods for them out of wooden dowels, string and magnets. Then they got to fish for the letters of their names! I let them take their letters and fishing rods home as a souvenir too. I found a pack of those little toy fish at the dollar store. There were over 100 little fish in the bag. Great find for this party!













Cupcake time!















Presents!















Ben and I are saving her gifts from us until her real birthday, but we did give her one from us today too. Ben had to go upstairs and bring it down. Here are some pictures of Chloe's reaction:

















It was a real fish for Chloe! She loves it very much. She named it, Goldie Bubbles Swimmer Anderson. She calls it Goldie for short:




It is just a tiny guppy.

The person at the pet store told us to start with one small one and then get a bigger one after about a month. This is our official first pet!






Chloe is excited to keep it in her room and feed it and take care of it. Happy birthday Chloe! We love you very much!