Surfs Up Party!

Graham celebrated his birthday all day on Friday! We started with waffles and a cupcake in the morning and he opened his presents from us and then we had his birthday party that afternoon. 

We had a Surfing/Beach birthday party for him! One of his first words was "beach" and he LOVES the beach! And considering we live down the street from one we have spent tons of time there over his first year. So, my plan was to have a fun/casual BBQ at the beach....then I started planning more and more and realized we should have an indoor back up space in case of the weather so we moved it to our Yacht Club/private beach area on camp. And then moved it inside for sure when we were hit with a cool front/wind storms over the weekend. I was pretty bummed we were not going to be able to be outside and let the kids just play in the water and sand and have to have more traditional/indoor birthday party but I had no other option and it all worked out.

View of the room with all the decorations, minus the cake.
 

Surfboards I made out of foam core by a food area

Favor bags filled with shark squirt guns, sunglasses and some gummy bears

Snack area, complete with a watermelon carved like a shark

Tables with decorations. I spray painted containers and filled with sand for some and also did some pictures of Graham from a beach session I did with him in fun colored frames from Ikea

Gold fish in little bags and shark fruit snack at the Snack Shack table

Flip flop nutter butters

Cupcakes with graham cracker/brown sugar aka sand on top and umbrellas

Amazing cake that was as delicious as it looks, made by my friend Lindsey Perry

My friend Lindsey is a self taught cake decorator and is so talented! Last year she had just had her youngest and there was no way I was going to ask her about making a cake for Graham but this year it all worked out! I send her some pictures of ones we liked and she helped pull them together into one. It was perfect! And it was delicious as well! Such a talented friend!

 

Since my original plan was to just use the beach and sand as entertainment, I had to come up with some games/activities in the few days before. We had a fishing game with fish cut outs that had paperclips on them and homemade fishing poles. It was fun and kept them entertained enough! And we had a coloring sheet as well as a make your own "Surf Shell" necklace out of fruit loops which provided a snack and entertainment.

Fishing game

Coloring activity and making surf shell necklaces out of fruit loops

We had so much fun celebrating with friends. Graham is so loved and so blessed to have so many friends and families that love on him. He was one very happy and celebrated little guy. We just had a great time catching up and spending time with everyone!

Lighting the candles

The birthday boy!

Graham was so excited about the party and then all the kids did play outside for a little bit before getting too cold. There was so much going on that we didn't get to presents at his party! My plan was to open when we got home but we had some friends over for pizza and more celebrating and he was so tired he just went to bed! The next day though we took our time and got to open everything throughout the day. It was actually kind of nice to be able to explain who got him what, play with it for awhile and then come back and open something else. He was a very spoiled little guy and has tons of new toys to play with!

A truly great day of celebrating our little guy!