All Sweet Things: The Party Prep ( 5 Rides Around the Sun )

in time of all sweet things beyond
whatever mind may comprehend - ee cummings

S told me that he wanted to have a pool party for his 5th birthday. His original idea was a "Naked-Party" which involved mud and a baby pool and no, I'm not making this up. Together we came up with a compromise of swim suits, the local pool and a small group of friends.


I decided to use reusable produce bags (for the mamas to swipe) as goody bags since I made totes last birthday...

and we filled them with some of our favorite things!






















1. Pustefix Bubble Bear necklace
2. Fortune Teller Fish (I changed the fortunes on the back so they were all positive)
3. Mini Playdough
4. Peeper Puppet
5. Homemade sketchbook
6. Smencil
7. Wood Wiggly Fish craft

As for party games, we're having a recycled boat race!

• Pre-cut milk/juice cartons to desired shape
• Print images like so and pre-cut sails (S chose pirate & viking theme)
• Attach a bit twine and colorful wood bead for pulling
• Insert thin straw into bendy straw for mast (tape bendy to boat floor)
• Labels & Marker for their Name flag atop mast
  
• Kidlets decorate with colorful duct tape, assemble and race

EVERYONE wins a prize! Homemade SPLAT balls! (Instructions here)

We'll also be playing Go Fish!

I made this as a 5th birthday gift for S...and to play at his party.

The fish are made from sawed off paint brushes (Inspired by this). S painted them. I added the details then polished them with natural food grade beeswax.

Next I glued washers around the eye holes and made a magnetic worm with some striped jersey scraps, a magnet and some marbles for weight.

The storage bag for the fishes was whipped up from scraps.

The fishing rod is a 1/2" x 48" wood dowel, polished with natural food grade beeswax, with an end cap from here! The bobber/dobber thingy is made from two wooden beads that I painted.

The game can be played by land or by sea. The worm can be removed for a more challenging game. The wire for the hook is tightly twisted so there are no sharp edges.

Once again, EVERYONE wins a prize! We bought a bag of adorable fishy water pistols...they work great and they do not look like guns!

There will be pizza and cake for dessert.

You'll have to stay tuned to see the cake. It's a "dirt cake"! It will be served in a red bucket topped with a little frog candle. Each guest will shovel their own and decorate their "dirt" with these toppings (in mini galvanized buckets):

1. Candy Pebbles 2. Black Forest Gummy Worms 3. Sand aka Toffee Crunch 4. Ants aka Chocolate Sprinkles