Under the Sea for Birthday 3!

Before my "baby" turns 8 this summer, I am trying to go back and organize our family photos. This oldie but goody was her third birthday party in July of 2010. During my little ladies' pre-school years, we were obsessed with a small local swim school that was in a warehouse in an industrial center. What it lacked on the outside, it made up for with oodles of charm and happy memories on the inside. I knew we would have to hold a party there. The invites were a preppy coral image in shades of blue with a custom wave envelope cut on my (then) brand-new silhouette!

The only drawback was that the saltwater training pool only held about 10 kids at a time (and this was back when I invited siblings too, so I always had about 30 kids). Upon arrival I divided the little fishes into "schools" for their swim lessons

:

While the littles waited for their turn at the pool, we played "go fish":

and made fish fans:

Or you could grab some fish food (Sweedish Fish, goldfish, pretzel fish, etc):

Then it was time to dive in for a lesson:

We served a nautical themed dinner:

And noshed on the cutest cake:

Here is my friend B pretending to eat it. She has since passed and I love this goofy picture of her way back before she was sick:

At this time there had been a major oil spill in the Gulf and we donated money to the relief effort in honor of our guests, but we gave everyone a pack of go fish cards just for fun:

Then we "swam" home and started prep for her big sis' sweet 5th birthday which was just two weeks later. I will be back with that tomorrow!