Shark Attack

Addison's 5th Birthday! If you dare...

Those are the invitations we sent out for his party, which took place yesterday. I added the gills and eye on the shark after three consecutive people told me it looked like a dolphin.

Unfortunately we are still kinda new around here and I guess not very noteworthy because a couple of moms from Primary thought Addison was a girl. Does blue and orange shark party scream girl or what? Luckily we intercepted the barbie present in time, and that mom was able to return it and get something more appropriate.

We had the event at the park, amidst crazy wind, and another party for a girl named Addison (Do you ever wish you could go back in time and change your kid's name? I am starting to feel like that.) that arrived before us and hogged the only ramada and table. But it went okay anyway.

We played "What time is it, Mr. Shark?," a dry land version of Sharks and Minnows, and feed the shark (basically a bean bag toss). I got the idea for the fish bean bags made out of old socks from Parents magazine.

Then we ate shark cake and opened presents. I got this idea from familyfun.com. The sample picture looks way better than mine. I think I cut the head too narrow and maybe made the teeth too big for the mouth. I couldn't find the pastel candy corn they used so I tried to cut up marshmallows. It was a sticky mess. I also started out piping the whole thing, but after an hour of the frosting melting down the sides of the cake, I got fed up and just spread the frosting with a knife. Maybe I will hire out the cake decorating next year. This is definitely not one of my talents. I must add, however, that the red velvet cake inside the horrible exterior was quite delicious. I can make a cake, just not decorate it.


The highlight of the day, though, was definitely the shark pinata. Back in Tucson, you used to be able to visit the streets around the rodeo grounds and find a dozen little hole in wall party stores where you could buy all kinds of Mexican candy and pinatas. They were even willing to make a custom design, as long as you paid cash. We haven't found anything like that up here, so I just ordered this one off Amazon. When I ordered it, it said it would arrive on Thursday. Then I started checking the shipping status and that date changed to May 3, which would have been way too late. But it's okay to pray for things like that right? I think Heavenly Father wanted us to have a good time, so he pushed it along a little faster and it arrived on Friday. Whew! We filled it with discounted Easter candy, shark fruit snacks, and little shark toys from the dollar store. It was seriously a big hit. (No pun intended.) We are going to do pinatas every year!

The remains of the shark. I didn't get a beforehand picture.