C's Gnarble Birthday

C's favorite book is "The Journey of the Noble Gnarble", a great story about a little fish who wants to see the sun. Everyone tells him he's too small but through will and determination he perseveres. I love the story too - great themes, original characters and beautiful imagery. So, I was thrilled when C picked the book to be the theme of her birthday party.

I drew some of the characters from the book and hung them throughout the house as decorations. C helped with some of the coloring and cutting. The Noble Gnarble:

Grandma with the feeding fipple-fosh and spongy gishy-gosh

Banner from the book cover

Since most of the kids had never heard the story before, we started off the party by having Grandpa read the book to the kids.

Then I planned some 'under the sea' activities (having tapped into my favorite mommies for ideas).

- Pin the Blyfish. We started with an empty blyfish and asked the kids to pin the family on. A few of the kids did it blindfolded, a few didn't. Whatever works.

- Fishing Game (thanks N!). This was a BIG hit and a highlight for most of the kids. I used a dowel, some butcher's string and a clothespin to make the rods. Across a doorway, we hung a piece of the water backdrop. The kids were instructed to drop their fishing rods "in the water" (over the backdrop). I was on the other side and attached all sorts of random things - socks, bandaids, banana peel, starfish, stickers and chocolate gold coins. On the last round each kid finally caught a fish. They were beyond giddy.

- a photo booth w/sea background and snorkel and fish props. This was a bit of a bust. I had planned to set up the backdrop outside and hoped to get photos of all the kids and their families. Unfortunately it was a bit wet out (no surprise there!) so I had to hang the backdrop inside instead which made it a bit difficult to take photos.

We did get some fun photos after the party though:

- a warckel (octupus) painting project (thanks m!)

I also hung up some blue 'wave' streamers for the kids to run through.

C decided she wanted cupcakes and ice cream rather than cake which was fine by me. I made a bunch of cupcake toppers using characters from the book, and a special one for C with the noble gnarble.

I put the ice cream in push-pops - much less hassle and mess.

As favors, each of the kids took home a book:

And C's thank you card:

Happy 4th Birthday, C! May you always have reason to smile at the sun.

Click Here to see more photos from the party taken by our party photographer extraordinaire, KK. (Thanks KK - not sure what I would have done without you!)