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Sunday, July 1, 2012

We Found Nemo: Madelyn's Finding Nemo Birthday Party!

It's that time of year again...the culmination of months of planning...it's Madelyn's birthday!  This year, because of Benjamin's March arrival, we decided to host the party at an offsite location to minimize the cleaning, set up and clean up that would have to take place at home.  Finding a location, however, was a huge challenge since I knew that I wanted to be able to bring all of the decorations, food, drinks and desserts myself (even though we were having the party offsite I didn't want it to be any less personalized since Madelyn and I have so much fun working on our parties together).

Finally we settled on Charlotte Aquatics for a few reasons:
1. this is where Madelyn takes swim lessons (and we HIGHLY recommend those) and she considers this her pool
2. the pool only hosts one party at a time so the entire facility would be ours alone
3. we could bring all of our own food, drinks and decor
4. we just love everyone there and knew they would make it a very fun event!

Once we had a pool we then easily decided on a Finding Nemo theme since it is one of Madelyn's favorite movies.  Once again, however, this is not a very current movie and party accessories were NOT easy to come by.  Here is what we cobbled together for, what I think, was a pretty nice birthday for a 4 year old.

Here was our invite that Patrick designed in Photoshop:



Like all parties, planning started early and Madelyn and I decided on, shopped for and assembled favor bags (with some help from Grammy).

The ribbon below is from Jo-Ann Fabrics and was used as our accent for everything.


Here is what we selected for our big kid favors: Nemo goggles (Dollar Tree....so excited we found these!), orange and white dive sticks (also Dollar Tree, very Nemo-esque), Nemo fruit snacks and water bottles (Michaels with tags I designed in Photoshop).

Here are the finished bags all tied up pretty!


On party day, me and my crew of party set-up professionals swarmed Charlotte Aquatics with bags and boxes and laundry baskets of food and decorations.  In a cloud of dust that Pigpen would be proud of a party was formed.  Here was our o-fish-al (I just cant get enough of that) result!


A few buffet table shots...I love the Nemo ribbon that Patrick's mom found (although I am not sure where)...it matched my little Nemo ribbon perfectly so we used it as a table garland.  The centerpiece of the table was delicious blue punch made with blue Hawaiian punch, lemonade concentrate and pineapple juice.


Fish (gold fish of course) and Chips with Dip and Veggies and Dip.

Bait (gummy worms and gummy octopus)

Bell Pepper Octopus on Hummus (thank you Pinterest!)

Patrick's awesome shark watermelon bowl (another Pinterest find)!





"Jelly" Fish Sandwiches for the kids plates (fish cookie cutter from Jo Ann Fabrics) and finger "sand"wiches (egg salad, ham salad, chicken salad, pimento cheese and cucumber tea sandwiches) for the adults.


Another Pinterest find- wrap your silverware in napkins and tie with twine and a "lifesaver"...very nautical and has the added benefit of lending a minty aroma to your party!  (Silverware from the Dollar Tree, napkins from Party city, blue caddy from the Target Dollar Spot, twine and lifesavers from Walmart).

The kids table all set up with place settings and favors.

Everyone worked up a hearty appetite with a little swimming, sliding, rope swinging, water gun fighting and water basketball playing before lunch.


Lunch is served!  The kids got their jelly fish sandwiches and a little aquarium cup of blue jello with Swedish fish in them.  They could then choose any other items from the buffet that tickled their fancy!

Up close of favor bags and bottles:

The babies (we have a lot recently) all got under the sea tub books from Dollar Tree:

One very excited 4 year old and her Nemo before lunch!  (note: the Nemo balloon was impossible to find anywhere near us in Charlotte...this one came from a grocery store in Ohio with Grammy and Grandpa)

And during lunch...


After lunch we brought out the good stuff!  Crush Cookies (chocolate dipped oreos to look like Crush)...

Pearl Pops (cake pops made to look like Pearl the octopus)



Peach Pastries (cake cookies cut and decorated with frosting and sanding sugar to look like Peach the starfish)

And CAKE!!!  Grammy made the Nemo and Dory bouncing on Jelly fish cake from Here and a personal cake for Maddy with a fondant sea gull on it that said "Mine"...hilarious!





Madelyn was very excited that the inside of the cake was all different shades of blue and got darker as you went deeper in the "ocean" since blue is "totally" her favorite color.

After a fabulous day of playing in the pool and eating a lot of food, we had one exhausted baby...


And one worn out little lady!

Happy Birthday Maddy!!

12 comments:

Unknown said...

What a fantastic Nemo Party! My daughter's second birthday party will be Nemo themed. Thank you for the ideas!

Sailing Girl said...

LOVE, love the details for your daughter's birthday party! I am planning my son's first birthday party and I think we're going with the Finding Nemo theme! Thank you!

BTW, wondering if you'd be kind enough to share with me the templates for the invitations and the water bottle tags? Those water bottles are such a GREAT idea!

Buckeye Barrys said...

Sailing Girl-

Thank you for the kind words! Both files are in photoshop but I would be happy to send them if you respond with your email.

Good luck with the birthday party! I am in the throws of my son's 2nd birthday planning so I understand!

Kristin

Unknown said...

was also wondering if I could get a copy of the invite file please if you don't mind :) thanks a bunch connie@CONNIEBERENGUER.COM

Unknown said...

The pictures and ideas are awesome for kids birthday party locations

Unknown said...

I love the party ideas! I am throwing a finding dory party for my niece. I would like to know if you are willing to share the invitation template please? :)

Buckeye Barrys said...

Marina -

Thank you!!!

I would love to send it to you, it is in Photoshop (a .psd file) though. I think it could possibly also be altered in GIMP or something similar. Just send me your email and I will forward it on.

Kristin

Unknown said...

I am in the process of planning a party for my Godson and was wondering if you can share the invite with me as well? If so, my email is monique26208@yahoo.com thank you in advance, I appreciate it.

Unknown said...

Hi could you send me the template for the nemo invitations? Kelsiejkraft@gmail.com
Thank you!!!!

Drew Watts said...

wow!! Awesome arrangements

mackyton said...

Wow! What a fantabulous party. I loved the decoration and arrangements, I am sure everybody had a blast. This will actually be a fun theme and activity involving party for my niece’s birthday celebration. I have booked one of the beautiful San Francisco venues and it also has a pool. This will be a great idea.

Unknown said...

How did you make the invitations? They look awesome!