Halle's 10th Birthday - Dolphin Party

Halle's birthday is during the heat of the summer.  Her first party was luau themed and was outdoors.  It was stifling hot!

Halle's First Birthday

 Because of this we have always had her other birthday parties at an air conditioned indoor venue like Jumpin Jaks, the Children's museum, skating rink, and so on.  This year, though, she really wanted a dolphin party because she ADORES dolphins.  She can sit and spout off all kinds of facts about dolphins, the different species, communication techniques, eating habits, etc, etc. 
In addition to having a dolphin theme, Halle had specific requests for her party.
1) There had to be water involved
2) There had to be a craft-like activity
3) She wanted red velvet cake.
4) I had to make her cake
5) There had to be games and prizes

She summed up
her requests with, "I don't want everyone to just show up, eat cake, and watch me open presents. That's boring. I want it to be fun."    Lol.

So this year I sucked it up and decided to have her birthday party outdoors with some water fun.  And it turned out great!  The kids had an absolute blast. 

I searched Craigslist and found a guy that rents out inflatable slip n slides. The price was for the entire weekend, so my kids got to enjoy it for more than just a few hours. We put dish soap on it to make it extra slippery at the party.

Super Slippery

Jakob's face cracks me up with all of the soap on it.  At least the kids were cleaned in the process of playing!

For the craft activity I hung up a large paper tablecloth for the kids to draw on and they created an "under the sea" mural

Jenna drawing on the mural

For the games we had a hula hoop contest, a water balloon relay, Twister Hoopla, a ring throwing contest, and tug o war.  The kids, the big ones especially, were very competitive and loved the party games.

When a kid won a game, he/she would go to Crystal, aka "Tattoo Lady." to get a temporary tattoo of his/her choice.  The kid with the most tattoos at the end of the party got a prize. 

The Tattoo Lady

Let the games begin!!  And may the odds be ever in your favor!  The first game was the hula hoop contest.  The contest came down to Jadyn and Halle.  I made them start walking (otherwise we would have been there all day waiting for someone to win) while hula hooping and Halle ended up the winner.

Hula Hoop Contest.  This was a necessary game for Halle because she is a master hula hooper. 

Myleigh hula hooping like the big girls

 The next game was the water balloon relay.
The kids were divided into two teams.  One at a time, a player ran down to the chair, grabbed a water balloon from the cooler, sat on it to pop it, and then ran back to their team for the next teammate to go.  This game was hilarious because the water balloons were very slippery and hard to pop.  The kids would slam their bottoms onto the chair which would send the balloon flying rather than popping.  Some of the kids would get mad and some would crack up laughing.  It was interesting to see all of the competitive personalities come out.  

The kids are waiting for their turn to go.  Nik was monitoring the kids to make sure they were waiting their turn. 

Halle and Gracie trying hard to pop the balloon

Ultimately the kids just had to pop the balloons with their hands

I'm trying to help Myleigh pop the balloon because she doesn't weigh enough

Even though this is a horrible pic of me I had to enlarge it to show the detail.  Brian was trying to help Arden pop the balloon, but she slipped off the chair and face-planted into the ground instead!  My worried face is comical.  She ended up muddy and bawling her eyes out. 

Here I'm trying to calm Arden down from her accident.  Jackson was so sweet.  Even though his team won, he told Arden that she could have his tattoo in order to make her feel better.  You can tell he is a big brother of three other kids.

The next game was Twister Hoopla.  They were divided into partners.  I spun the game wheel and each team had to pick up the designated color ring and hold it between them according to the game wheel. This was amusing to watch and was Halle's favorite game.

yellow ring- elbow to ear and blue ring- hand to back

green ring- elbow to elbow

The next game was the ring-toss game.  This game required the player to throw rings onto the dolphin's nose.  Jadyn won this one.

Ring toss game- Emma stole a ring and refused to give it back!  Ha!

The ring toss game. Jadyn's long limbs gave her a major advantage.

Tug o war.  This was my favorite game to watch!

  I had them do the tug o war on the tarp so it would be extra slippery.

The kids slipping and falling, but hanging in there!

A lot of the kids won the same number of games so I had a tie-breaker. They were  given goldfish and had to catch them in their mouths (like dolphins do, of course!)  Jadyn and Rylee both successfully caught 5 out of 8 fish, so they both won.  They each took home a hula hoop as a prize.

Jadyn's face is so funny.  I'm glad I captured this shot.

Time for cake!

the dolphin cake that Crystal and I made. I named it "Flippin" because it was flippin hard to make.

I gave Halle a single candle to blow out since the other candles were sparkler candles. The sparklers were bunk though, so we had to blow them out anyway. That was a waste of $2, lol

Alyssa and Alexis enjoying cake time.

Along with cake we had pizza, candy "sushi", chocolate dolphins, and ocean water.

Chocolate dolphins

Candy Sushi made with rice crispy treats, twizzlers, gummy worms, and fruit roll ups

We ended the party with a "pinaqua" which was basically a weighted down paper bag. The kids all had water guns and had to soak the bag until it tore.  The pinaqua had a goodie bag for each kid along with bubbles.

All of the kids shooting the bag

The pinaqua snipers

the bag tore and the goodies fell out

Myleigh grabbed as many goodie bags as she could hold!  She ended up with about 5 in her arms.  So funny!!

And what is the first thing a kid does when he gets a water gun?  Shoot the adults of course!

Cole was shooting Brian with the water gun so Brian fought back!

Here are a few random pictures from the party:

Aunt Sarah and Jack

It is Myleigh's nap time. She partied hard.

Silly Emma

Aunt Sarah, Halle, and Maggie

The dads hanging out. They look real enthusiastic, lol

Sweet ladies, Deborah and Leianna. Leianna was a trooper for sticking the party out because she didn't feel good.

Halle and Brian "hanging ten" together

Uncle Adam and Aunt Sarah

 Josh in deep thought

My three year old decided to make a "pretty picture" with the chalk from the goodie bag on my floor. That's my Arden!