Birthday Beach Bash

Yes.  It's November.  Which means only one thing.  Bella's Birthday Party!

This year's birthday party theme was a Beach party.  Yes.  She should have been born in the summer, her favorite season.

For the party invitations, (I free handed) a flip-flop.  I typed out the party information, making sure that it was centered, and cut it out into the shape of a (smaller) flip flop.  I used two pieces of ribbon (maybe 2-2.5" long, each) as the straps and secured them at the top (for the toes) using a foam heart.  I made them so that they will fit inside a regular envelope.

The wording (and card idea) I found on a card on the Internet.

Please flip-flop, run or hop, surf or dash to Bella's Birthday Beach Bash.
When:
Where:
RSVP:
Beach attire encouraged

(turns out it was about 40F here...great weather for beach attire, huh?)

Our first activity was a craft (of course).  We decorated tote bags.  I had a few large foam stamps and bought some fabric paint and let the girls decorate their bag.  They brushed on the fabric paint (onto the stamp) using a foam sponge and then stamped their bag.  To keep it simple, I just designated a color for each stamp.  This eliminated the need to wash the stamp when one of the girls wanted to use a different color paint on the stamp.  I think in the end, they were mixing the colors (which looked pretty cool).

We played your usual beach birthday games.  Limbo, freeze dance, hula dancing*, (yes, we learned the hula) and the macarena.   We had a beach ball, which turned into a game of tossing the ball to each other.  With the music playing, I don't think they cared what they were doing, they were just having fun.

*I watched a few YouTube videos and learned a few basics for hula dancing.  It's pretty easy to learn.  I'm not a professional after a few viewings, but, maybe with practice?  Nah, it will never happen.

The girls loved doing the limbo.  I think we did this several times.  And, the Macarena was a HUGE hit.

Cupcakes:  Blue frosting (for the water) with a shark, ground up graham crackers (put them in the food processor until fine) for sand (island/beach) and a palm tree.

Decorations:  I had Bella make some signs to put up around the basement.  I wasn't feeling well and, figured that it's her party, let her help make the decorations, right?  Our signs:

No Lifeguard on Duty:  Swim at your own risk

Shark area

No Diving  Shallow area

Snorkeling area

We also put up our flower chain.  I cut out millions of flowers and taped them onto a ribbon that RT hung throughout the basement (and kitchen).

Goody bags:

The usual girly stuff.  Small bottle of nail polish (gotta have cute toes on the beach), a sparkly head band (gotta hold the hair back when catching those rays), sunglasses (need those too) and a flip flop note pad (found that one at Orientaltrading.com).  Oh, and I made some little flower hair clips.  I found the flowers at Dollar Tree, cut the wire stems and hot glued them onto little clips (purchased at Michael's).