A Quick and Easy, Ocean Themed, Birthday Party

D's birthday fell in the middle of the week, this year, and several of us were suffering from colds, so we decided to keep it a simple family party. Of course, simple can still be fun.

Besides the octopus pinata (click here, for how-to-make instructions)...


...and the fishing game, I mentioned this morning, as our stART (story + ART) post...


...we played pin the fin on the shark.


I've never drawn a shark before, at least that I can remember, but I found a terrific site, with very easy to follow instructions for drawing all sorts of cartoonish animals.


I had also planned a duck-duck-goose style game of shark-shark-minnow, but the children were anxious to try out the birthday boy's new Endless Ocean game for the Wii (review coming on that later), after a quick stop for a piece of cake, and a bite of ice cream.

I let D, pick the cake he wanted from Google Images gallery of fish birthday cakes. He picked about the easiest one out there, which is good, because I am not a cake decorator.

This one (click here, for full step-by-step instructions from Bake, Decorate, Celebrate), is about as simple as frosting a normal two layer cake.

Once, the frosting is on, you just run a spoon through to make swirly scales, and then pile on a few gum drops, and orange slice candies, and you're done. I think the total decorating time was about 15 minutes. About the same time it took the children to devour it, or at least, make a good dent it's side.



It's great to be a homeschooler.