Fishing for a Party

My daughter loves fishing and she decided fairly early on that she wanted a fishing themed birthday party this year. So far in our house, all the birthday parties we've had have been small family affairs revolving around a family dinner. Since I don't have to plan big parties with games and activities, I have lots of fun decorating the dining room.

For me, on of the best parts of the day happens first thing in the morning. We don't start decorating for the party until the kids go to bed the night before, so when they wake up and go downstairs they discover the dining room has been transformed for the party. I adore watching as they walk into the room and then stop to take it all in. My daughter was a hoot this year. She walked around the room nodding in approval and commenting on each item as she noticed it...

 She liked the fish pom-pons hung from the ceiling,

and  how we draped the china cabinet with netting

and bobbers. I'm not sure why, but it surprised
me that she knew it was supposed
to be a fishing net.

 

 She nibbled on the bait (gold fish, gummy worms &

gummy fish) and played with the bobbers on the table,

  but she loved the fish napkins.

(I'm so glad I found this folding tutorial - they each
only took a minute or two.)

The fish shaped ice cubes (from IKEA)
didn't come out until dinner time and were just icing on
the cake. Oh, I almost forgot the cake...

  K loved it! Our friend, Miranda, made it complete with a
little gum paste boat on the top. I really like how she
reused  the glass beads to decorate
around the edge of the plate.

Such a fun day, and not particularly expensive.  The bobbers, the confetti poppers and the net came from the dollar store, the ice cube molds were $0.99 each, and the napkin fabric was about $12.00; everything else, well except the green paper plates, I already had on hand.

My son's party isn't until fall, but he has already started thinking about what theme he wants. Hopefully he changes his mind because there is no way I am throwing an eight year-old a zombie party! Hopefully he was just teasing me. Just thinking about zombies keeps me up at night. Whenever I watch anything with zombies on TV I can't sleep; I toss and turn because I get caught up thinking about how I'll keep the kids alive. Silly, I know. Especially given the absolute zero percent chance of zombies ever appearing at my front door on any night other than Halloween. Although the Centers for Disease Control has entertained the idea...

A Blue Bridge

The Mackinac Bridge is looking a wee bit different these days. The normal red and green lights have been swapped out for blue ones for the month of April for autism awareness. I've worked with several kids in the past with an Autism Spectrum Disorder, but I had no idea that Michigan had 15,000 kids with an A. S. D. That makes us fourth in the nation in terms of cases despite the fact that we're only the eighth most populated state. (Right behind CA, TX, NY, FL, IL, PA, and OH.)    

photo via

The blue lights aren't nearly as bright as the normal ones so they aren't really visible from the island, but I love the the idea of increasing awareness of Autism Spectrum Disorders. I love that the Mackinac Bridge Authority agreed to participate in this project.

Counting: Mackinac Style

Alex over at Moonstitches has inspired me. As she roams the streets of Yokohama, Japan, she manages to capture images of numbers. She hadn't posted since the tsunami hit last year and she and her family relocated, but she's back home and blogging again. Thank goodness.

I thought it might be fun to see what I could find here on Mackinac Island. I probably won't find nearly as many as she does given the size of my town, but I still thought it might be fun. I actually took these pictures last spring, but after Alex quit posting due to the disaster, the idea of posting them just didn't seem right. Now that she's home, it's time to share...

You can take a look at one of Alex's counting series here.

More island counting to come...