My son turned 4 on Monday (which I still can’t believe) and we had a little party for him in the backyard on Sunday afternoon.  But it didn’t feel so little leading up to it because I tend to go a little nuts on the invitations and the decorating and the details and the food.  But what do you expect from someone who does what I do for a living?  I have to get all creative, right?

The theme was fish, and it all started with the cake.  Back in July, I made a bear cake for a friend’s son, who saw it in Martha Stewart Living and became obsessed.  Charlie does not like chocolate and didn’t want anything to do with the bear, but saw the fish cake in the magazine and wanted that one.  I told him I would make it for HIS birthday.  Well, this kid doesn’t forget anything.  So since we were having a fish cake, we had a fish themed party.  Fish, fish and more fish.

I have to say I’m a little disappointed with the photos.  They’re not as good as they should be and there definitely are not as many as there should be.  But I’m going to give myself a pass since I was a little busy running around making everything look perfect in real life, and I think my camera is on the fritz.  Next year maybe I should hire a photographer!

So here we go.  First, the invite.  This part is the easiest for me – and it is fun to create invites like this when I am my own client.  I can do whatever I want.  I just played around a bit and inadvertently created a new style.  It’s different from any of the other styles I do and it worked really well here.

 

Then, because I wanted a photo-op for all the kids, I decided to create one of those stick-your-head-through-the-hole character boards.  (What are those things called?)

Then there was the signage and the favor bags and the games and the little details:


And the desserts – which just about killed me!  First, the infamous fish cake:

And fish bowl cookies and fish cake pops, (not to mention fish shaped brown butter rice krispie treats and Swedish Fish and chocolate Goldfish crackers, oh my!)

Whew.  I have to say I’m glad birthdays only come once a year.  But it was all worth it because he had a blast!