Ahoy!

Q turned three recently.  And long ago, Miss B and I decided on a nautical theme for his birthday since he loved our trip to Lake Powell this summer and was enamored with boats and water and shovels and pails, etc.  I have been collecting things for ages.  Mainly buckets in all sizes, varieties and colors.  My sister and I found an awesome captain's wheel at Goodwill a few days before the party for $3.  What a find.  It was already perfectly white too.  We had to push back the party a couple of weeks due to my surgery, but finally I couldn't stand it anymore, so we invited a few close friends to keep it quaint, and I enlisted the help of Miss B and some of her buddies.

For his gifts, I was so excited to find a complete Bat Cave at Goodwill with all of the pieces (except a couple of the small weapons) still intact.  It was $3.99.  And it retails for upwards of $70.  Amazing.  It is in perfect condition.  Dennis and I were overjoyed and Dennis was dying to take it home right then and play with it himself.  I think it was my best find yet.  I also found a sweet Fisher Price Garage (just the garage not the cars or people) for about the same price as the Bat Cave.  And it is perfect for all of our Matchbox cars.  It was a wonderful month for great deals.  And Q scored big for his birthday (but not my wallet)!

I found some invites at Michaels that were perfect and cheap so I just went the traditional invite route this year, except I enclosed an origami boat within the card.

I debated on what to do for the cake and Miss B insisted on a sandcastle cake.  So I found this cake mold on Amazon and splurged because it was so easy.  I didn't need frosting or other parts and many hours to construct it.  I just made the Coconut Pound Cake recipe the mold came with, sprayed and floured the pan well, and it popped out like magic.  Then I set it on a plate, added lots of brown sugar, a few sea shells and some Teddy Grahams.  Right before we ate it, I added whipped cream to the hollowed out middle part.  It was so intricate and beautiful and so so easy.  Plus, it tasted pretty good too.  

For food, we had a variety of goldfish and whales in buckets, some octopus cookies, fish sticks and blue jello (I called it a Cup of Ocean...and added cool whip before serving...the kiddies thought it was jolly good fun).

I made more origami boats and added sails for part of the decoration.  

For goody bags, we filled buckets with a shovel, a bag of goldfish, a note book, a small toy boat, some gummy fish, a few sailboat coloring pages, the sailor hats they decorated...and I wanted to add licorice knots, but the knots all broke into small pieces of licorice after a few moments in knot-form...so I didn't end up adding those.  Bother.  That was one of my favorite ideas!

And here are some of the cute guests.  One of my friends even brought a great cardboard sailboat as their gift and dressed her daughter up in a sailor dress.  Dedication.

So, Q loved it and keeps telling us stories of his boat party.  And I am glad.  With that, I will leave you with a photo of a lovely licorice knot (before it broke into unsatisfactory licorice bits) and the cake full of whipped cream.