Carter's Penguin Themed 4th Birthday

Last year I let Carter pick out his birthday party theme. It took him a while to decide and this year was no exception. Read about last year's party here, his 2nd birthday party here, and his first birthday party here. When he finally landed on a theme and stuck with it, I didn't have much time to plan everything out. I asked him if he wanted penguins like at the zoo or penguins like in the movie he has seen, he picked penguins like at the zoo. So I used as many realistic penguins as I could instead of going with all cartoon penguins. The first thing I did was search penguin toys on Amazon and found adorable penguin rubber ducks to use as decorations and in the treat bags for Carter's friends. My mom checked with the baker we love to use and she was already booked up for the weekend of Carter's party so we couldn't do a cake or honeydough cookies, which our parties have become known for! Instead I headed to Sam's Club with Elise while Carter was at school and was delighted to find they had penguin-themed birthday cakes that included penguins wearing party hats and balloons. They were perfect and even better, a nice price. I ordered a 10" round cake along with 30 cupcakes, half white with buttercream icing and the other half chocolate with chocolate icing.

The weekend before Carter's party I went shopping with my parents during nap time and we searched for penguin decorations and treats for goody bags. We got really excited and realized a penguin-themed party in December was a gold mine! We found so many adorable penguin decorations in the Christmas section and even scored penguin shaped chocolates at the Dollar Tree. National Geographic had some Christmas cards with photographs of penguins on them which I used for all of our signage at the party. Rather than trying to make my own signs, I just cut the Christmas cards up and used them. It worked out wonderfully. I had my heart set on making adorable penguin treat bags I had seen on Pinterest but we couldn't find any black bags anywhere. Eventually we came up with the idea of gluing black tissue paper to brown lunch sacks and it worked out great! I also just had to make these adorable penguin balloons but didn't want to spend the money on helium and knew they'd look silly if I made them upside-down so Ty rigged them up with some string like a boss! Thomas came through big with an awesome penguin and snowman cut-out as a photo prop that was a big hit. I also made some penguin cups with label paper and added penguin faces to some black balls we got in a race bag to make a penguin bowling game. Along with that I set out the penguin puzzle we got Carter for his birthday along with Don't Break the Ice, which I topped with a toy penguin instead of the man, and a sensory bin with fake snow, penguins toys, and foam snowflakes. The kids had a blast with all the toys and the only thing that didn't get any action was the puzzle. I think it would have if I'd taken it out of the box, but we had enough stuff out and about. I also set up a craft table with a craft we'd seen at Aqua Tots at the aquarium. I made copies of a baby penguin coloring page and then had cotton balls out so the kids could glue fluff to the baby penguins. Carter has one friend who always does crafts at his parties and I figured she'd be the only one to do it, but each kid worked on one for at least a little bit. His friend I knew would enjoy it sat forever and glued cotton balls to every inch of the penguins, it was adorable!

Treat bags for Carter's friends.

The little thank you note I stapled on the bags.

Penguin bowling.

The craft table.

For food Ty made sandwiches using day old bread we got at Jimmy John's for 50 cents a loaf which was my mom's genius idea. I had planned to buy penguin cheddar crackers that are just like goldfish but are shaped like penguins instead, but I guess they don't make them any more because I couldn't even get them online and they were listed as discontinued. We had just gotten some at Wal-Mart a few months before, darn it! Instead Carter picked original chips with ranch to dip them in along with Cheetos and I threw in some BBQ chips because there was a deal on chips. Ty made blue raspberry Jell-O and sliced it to look like ice cubes. We also had carrots, sugar snap peas, grapes, and apple slices. For dessert we had cake, cupcakes, and Swedish Fish.

Carter checking out the special bottles for the kid drinks.

The dessert table and decorations.

One of our cute balloons.

Once I got all the decorations up I started to get nervous none of Carter's friends would be able to come because the roads were getting slick and my parents saw numerous wrecks on their drive down. But thankfully once 4:00 hit we started getting knocks on the door and his only friends who were planning on coming and weren't able to were my best friend and her 2 kids who would have driven 2 hours to the party and then driven home on possibly icy streets in the dark. I was so glad they decided not to come as I would have been so worried about them making it home! Carter woke up a little after 3:30 and was so excited as I had told him when he woke up from his nap it would be about time for his party. He came running out to see his grandparents and play with his games. It took some convincing to get him to get dressed before his friends showed up and we finished getting his clothes on right as his first guests arrived. The first part of the party all the kids played and had a blast. Penguin bowling and Don't Break the Ice were the most popular games. I borrowed my parents' Don't Break the Ice game because the only version I could find was a Frozen-themed one for over $20, no thanks! Then we all ate. The Jell-O was a huge hit and Elise ate so much of it, her poop was blue the next day! Carter and his friends took off to play and my mom ended up letting them play with her camera taking pictures. She had almost 300 pictures all taken by children by the end of the evening.

Carter playing Don't Break the Ice with his Oma.

 

 

When it was time for cake I got Carter and told him to come into the kitchen and tell everyone cake time. He was so proud walking in and announcing it to everyone. When we were ready to sing to Carter, the mom of one of his friends told her daughter it was time to sing and she immediately turned and ran into the room from the hallway where she had been playing. I let her start us off and she sang at full volume so proudly (she's 2 and it was adorable). Carter smiled ear to ear as we sang him Happy Birthday. Of course, he was super excited to open presents. When he opened the bath tablets his Uncie J got him his face lit up and he hugged them to his chest as he said, "Just what I wanted! Now I have some of my own!" The ones we use now Elise got in her Easter basket so I always tell him how sweet Elise is to share with him. Carter wanted to open his batmobile from one of his friends and the kids all took turns playing with it. His friend's little sister picked up a book and took it to the dad of a kid she didn't know saying, "Read this to me, please." It was just precious. Another big hit of the night was the Gekko jacket Carter's Uncie Taco got him. It looked just like Gekko from PJ Masks and when he pulled the hood up it looked like Gekko's eyes. Once all his friends left he put it on and started running around picking stuff up with his Gekko muscles. Then his Gpa became his Gekkomobile and crawled around on all fours for quite a while playing PJ Masks with Carter. The night was topped off with watching PJ Masks before bed and Carter couldn't have been happier. He said, "This was the best birthday ever!" It was a really fun day and I definitely enjoyed the party a lot. It is so nice that he has friends whose parents I enjoy talking with so much. Elise had a blast as well, talking multiple people into feeding her extra Jell-O and chocolate. I was surprised she wasn't sick by the end of the night. Another successful birthday down and another wonderful year with our sweet, perfect, and wonderful Carter Ty!