An Elephant Pool Party

My sweet Camille turned 6 on Wednesday. I haven't mentioned it too much on my blog but those who know Camille also know Mimi. Mimi is a 10 inch tall stuffed elephant who Camille has mothered since she was a year old. Mimi has more clothes than I do and has been given more attention that any parent has ever given their child. And Mimi has created an elephant obsession. And as much as Camille loves Mimi, she also loves to swim which leads us to the theme of this year's birthday party....an elephant pool party!

Mimi

As usual, I got fairly wrapped up in the details. Here goes with tons of pictures and notes on the party.

Let's start with the invitation. I contacted Elizabeth with Sunshine Ink Studio to design the invitation. She also helped me with Clyde's birthday invitation and did a fabulous job on both.

Pool parties are nice because you don't have to come up with games and other activities. The kids were mainly in the pool or on the playground.

For drinks, I found Koolaid Bursts in blue to look like "pool water". I created labels using the elephant from the invitation in Publisher and attached them with contact paper. I didn't want the ink to bleed on the label so I covered completely with contact paper and then froze water balloons to serve as ice. They also sell waterproof labels here that you can buy by the sheet but I discovered late and didn't want to pay extra for rush shipping. My method worked fine!

We also had water that I served in these cups found on Oriental Trading. The straws are from TJMaxx.

We served trail mix in french fry cups also found at Oriental Trading.

We also served Laffy Taffy to look like kickboards, gummy Lifesavers, colored Twizzlers to look like pool noodles and also candy peanuts and Nutter Butter cookies to continue with our elephant theme.

 I had the vision to make a elephant out of pool noodles. I needed my engineer and AWESOME husband to help my vision come to life. Isn't it so cute!? I was mainly moral support on this project.

I decided to make paper fans for every place. I just used Publisher again to create. I printed on cardstock and then attached to colored cardstock and added craft sticks.

 The cake came from Pearl's Cupcake Shoppe. I sent them a picture of the invitation and they did an fabulous job of recreating for the cake! And as always the cake was SOOO delicious. We had two guest who needed gluten free and they were happy to provide two cupcakes for us in coordinating colors.

The goodie bags were found on major clearance from Michaels. Some of them didn't have the appliques so I found some felt ones also on clearance and added them to the plain bags.

 My favorite find from the entire party were these fans. Camille spotted them by the register at the Dollar Tree and they couldn't be left in the store. What a perfect way to cool yourself down on a hot day by the pool!

Other contents in the goodie bags were bubbles, sunglasses and lifesavers.

Since we had a few boys at the party, we decided pink and purple floral bags were not the right option for them. So I picked up these orange bags from the trusty Dollar Tree. (side note...Michael says we may have spent $20,000 last year the Dollar Tree and just because it is only a dollar doesn't mean we need it. Ha!I beg to differ). We added a water gun to their bags.

And a good time was had by all! Camille said she had SOOO much fun so this may have been our best birthday party yet!

Oh and last but not least Elizabeth from Sunshine Ink Studio also created this cute thank you card for us to match the invitation. I had them printed at Office Max.

Source List:
Invitation & Thank You Card: Sunshine Ink Studio
Invitation & Thank You Card Printing: Office Max
Pink Drink Tub & Lime Green Bowls & Tall Plastic Cups: Christmas Tree Shop
Elephant Cups, Polka Dot Napkins, Polka Dot Cups, Striped Cups, Sunglasses: Oriental Trading
Candy: Walmart & Dollar Tree
Pool Noodles: Dollar Tree & Christmas Tree Shop
Green Polka Dot Table Clothes: Dollar Tree
Solid Green & Pink Polka Dot Table Clothes: CVS
Cardstock, Craft Sticks,Goodie Bags,Bubbles,Elephant Headbands, Baskets for Candy: Michaels
Cake: Pearl's Cupcake Shoppe
Elephant Fans: Dollar Tree
Balloons: Martins