Underwater

Prior to the birthday, I mentioned to Max that he could have some friends over for a birthday party. He had a small one last year, and since this was the big 5, I thought we'd do it again. He'd been to a few throughout the year, almost all of which were themed as superheros. When I asked him what kinds of a party he wanted to do, I expected one of two answers. 1- He'd go with what he'd seen and pick superheros. 2- He wouldn't have an idea yet, but would figure one out with some brainstorming.

Didn't anticipate answer 3.

"Mom. I want to do an underwater birthday party. With sharks. And octopus. All the kids can wear their swimsuits and pretend that we are underwater. We can have the kids try to jump over a shark. Then we can try to pin a fish into the sharks mouth. Think we can give everyone goggles? And, could we fill the house up with water?"

To say this is something he's been thinking about feels like an understatement.

I mentioned the filling the house with water idea would leave us with soggy furniture to sit on. And probably with an unhappy dad.

"Okay. Maybe we could just fill the bathroom up, and the kids could swim in there."

How funny! I remember thinking the same thing when I was young! Filling a room with water seemed like such a simple and completely practical idea. You could just open the door and have the room full of water, ready to jump in and start swimming anytime you want. But, I eventually steered him from the filling-rooms-with-water concept.

Then I tried to figure out how to make the rest work...

Made a bunch of sharks out of boxes for shark toss. Made an obstacle course of green seaweed, underwater cave, and a floating jellyfish to jump through. Or green ballons, a chair covered with crepe paper, and a hula hoop. Assigned Papa Oskar to draw a shark for pin the fish on the shark and now we have this awesome shark poster still hanging in Max's room! Managed to find goggles at the dollar store - the reward for completing their underwater scuba training, complete with a certificate. For the bday cake we went with an ocean topped with sand and fish inside. Or a mixture of jello pudding and cool whip dyed blue, crumbled graham crackers and Swedish fish.

The kids were hilarious to watch and listen to. The sea creatures they pretended to be, the comments they'd make to each other, priceless. The panic when they thought real fish were in the cake "ewwww! gross" only to be happily surprised that it was the candy version.

Probably my favorite part was the final game, with goggles, where we had the kids pretend to be a sea creature, move to the music and then freeze when the music stopped. Even better for the parents watching as they did it to the Jaws theme song.

The party was fun. But it was also A LOT of work! I was so happy when it was done. Post party I had some great conversations with other moms about the work behind a "homemade" party. How it's so nice to keep it light on the wallet, and to let them invite friends for a party, but how there is always so much work behind the scenes.

And, while I was happy to make the big 5 fun for him, looking forward, this won't be an annual gig. Sometimes a tricky thing with parenting is while you want them to feel happy and excited about a big day, remembering to mindfully hold back in an effort to teach them to understand the value of less or simple can be a good thing too.

A BIG THANKS to our sweet neighbors Chris and Jamie who took ALL the photos. I didn't get one click out of our camera! (These will also probably be the nicest photos posted on our blog. If you couldn't guess, she has a knack for professional photography!)