Under the Sea

This is going to be a long, probably disjointed post, because I have a lot to write about. And my pictures won't move to where I want them. Oh well.

Here are some pictures of Hazel at swimming lessons, since I already showed some of Jethro. She loved them too. We are having a break for two weeks, and then doing another session (for two weeks). (Isn't her swimming suit so cute?! I got it at Once Upon a Child.)

Sheesh, I just tried to move a picture again and it went to a completely random place. I guess they'll just have to stay where they are.











So, Hazel's birthday party theme was Under the Sea, so we've been rounding up oceany/mermaidy type stuff. A friend lent me some mermaid costume stuff, but it was after I had found a really cool tutorial online (here it is) of how to make a mermaid skirt. So I made two. They were actually really easy and quite fun to make. I mean, you get to go to the fabric store, and pick out the most gaudy, sparkly material you can find--that's just fun, eh? Plus, all the material for one of them (minus the elastic and stuffing that I already had) came to $2.50 because I got it from the bargain section at Jo-Ann's.

So, the kids were trying all the stuff out, so I had to take pictures of my mer-children. :) Ethne especially was soooo cute. She had her little purse on one arm, a wand in the other hand, crown on head, and the big tail dragging behind her. Oh, the cuteness. (Oh, and I made them all using a sewing machine I bought for my sister Kami at a garage sale for $25--aren't I the best sister?!)

I made some fish barrettes for the little treat bags. I didn't really make them up myself, I just copied an idea I saw somewhere else online. And somewhere, there's a picture of Ethne modeling her little fishy barrette.

















So, on to the party. We had lots of little friends come to play and it was so exciting for Hazel. We started out painting some dowels with glittery paint for some seashell wands.

We had some bubbles to blow, and we played a sort of musical chairs-pass-the-water-balloon that was fun.
Then we had a whole bunch of relay races. The FOR SURE highlight was the relay where they had to pull on one of the mermaid tails and run with it across the yard to the "sandbox" (a rubbermaid container with about 25 pounds of sand in it), find a shiny pebble, race back and give the skirt to the next person on their team. It was fun having 4 boys there---they were HI-LARIOUS in the tail. Me and some other moms that stayed were laughing and laughing. Here's a picture of Harry sporting the merman tail.

Some of the other relays were to crab walk across to the sandbox, pick up a pasta seashell with your crab claws (salad tongs) and race back; run down to the pool, find a shark (water balloon) and squash it; and we tried one where you pass a cup of water and see which team can fill their bucket the highest. That one was a little hard, but we weren't too concerned with who won, and they were having a good time I think.



I made a mermaid cake that there's a picture of somewhere, and when she thought no one was looking (and actually no one was), Ethne helped herself. Devious little cutie.
















Here are some pictures of the fun we had with the balloons Hazel got as a gift.


This picture is hilarious because it's a new face Ethne makes when she's mad...Brett calls it the monkey face, cause he thinks she looks like a monkey. She sticks out her bottom teeth. Silly silly. And the very last picture (two pictures actually) of this post is also funny because it's the face Ethne makes when you ask her if she wants something (such as a treat) and she smiles and nods her head very emphatically. It's so funny.

Anyway, we had cake (the mermaid cake I found on familyfun.com---whatever DID people do before the internet? They had to be creative or something.) and Hazel opened presents, and we finished making the wands, and that was that. It was a perty good party I think.

We haven't actually given Hazel her presents from us, because Brett was working last night painting a guy's house, and he didn't get home until right as the kids were going to bed, so I think we'll do that tonight.