Octopus Theme Party Ideas - Food

**This blog talks about the food I served at my son's Octopus Theme Party. Check out my other blogs to read about the PARTY FAVORS and GAMES.

I decided to serve a simple lunch for my son's summer party because I knew the kids (and moms) would be hungry after swimming!

After scavenging Pinterest for ideas, I settled on a few common choices.

Octo-dogs: a hot dog cooked, then cut to look like an octopus. You see these everywhere!! To make it easier, I cooked them and cut them ahead of time (over the stove on a frying pan in a bit of bacon grease). I also cooked several regular hot dogs and placed them in buns. Then I wrapped each hot dog in foil and placed them on a cookie sheet in the oven set at 140 degrees. They stayed warm until we were ready to eat and didn't dry out! *octo-dog in photo is not a cooked one per one little boy's request...

Octopus Bananas!

Octopus dip: this was really clever! Start with an orange pepper and cut off the bottom. Turn it upside down and draw on a face. I just used permanent marker because we didn't plan on eating this part. Then cut 8 strips of pepper to create the tentacles. Set all this up in a bowl of dip to look like your octopus is swimming in the dip! Use extra strips of the pepper and crackers for dipping.

Octopus cake: I baked a small, single-layer cake for this one and covered it with homemade blue frosting. Click HERE for my frosting recipe. I used plenty of frosting and used a swirling motion to make it look like waves.  Finally, I created small gummy octopuses on top by using a Dots candy for each body, and small gummy worms cut in half for the tentacles.  I made just enough candy octopuses for each guest so everyone got one.

Finally, here's the cute octopus plates I found on Amazon!

Octopus Theme Party Ideas - Favors

*This blog talks about some party favors for our Octopus Theme Party. Check out my other blogs to read about the GAMES  and FOOD

I always love to send the kids home from a party with fun favors but I'm not a fan of the typical tiny erasers and cheap plastic toys that will just end up in the trash.  Not to mention our guests were pretty young and those ideas posed a choking hazard!! Here's what I came up with:

Octopus Suckers: I used colorful pipe cleaners to create octopus suckers out of Tootsie Pops. Here are step by step photo instructions:

Octopus Balloon Animals: ever since I took my kids to a free outdoor concert over the summer, they have been obsessed with the balloon animals they got there! I bought an inexpensive set at Walmart for just $5 that included 20 long balloons and a pump. The pump is most important!! Those balloons were pretty tight and kept popping so I ordered a larger bag of 100 professional balloons from Amazon. You can find them HERE.

I found a video online that gave instructions on how to create your own octopus balloon animals. It really wasn't that hard and it was a fun gift to pass out! They also made fun decorations before the kids went home! Here is the video I used! 

Finally, here's  some octopus party blow outs I found on Amazon:

Octopus Theme Party Ideas - Party Games

Ever since my daughter was born in 2007, I have given her a Halloween Party every year just for fun (even when she was only 6 months old!!). When my son was born in 2010, I wanted to give him a part each year for fun, too, but couldn't decide on a holiday to celebrate so he gets a summer party each year! I admit it's usually been an "end of summer" party because I always get so busy with our other happenings that I don't get around to planning it until school is upon us!!

This year, my son chose the theme of Octopuses for his party! Once you pick a theme for any gathering, planning the details just falls into place.

This blog features the games I came up with for our party.  Check out the other two parts to read about the FOOD and PARTY FAVORS!

Ocean Animals Search: I found a package of small plastic ocean animals which included one octopus at a huge toy store near us called US Toy. While the kids were playing in a separate room, I hid all twelve sea dwellers around my living room. This was a group of children ranging in age 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 so the hiding spots weren't too difficult! I had the kids come in the room to search for the animals. Whoever found the octopus was the winner!

Ink the Octopus: A couple days before the party, I drew a large octopus on my garage doors using sidewalk chalk. This was a really fun set up activity to do with my son because he got to participate with me! When all our guests arrived, this was also a great back drop for a group photo!! Also before the party, I spent about an hour filling up water balloons so they would be all ready for the big day. I filled up a large cooler (on wheels) with about 200 water balloons. I had the kids throw the balloons at the octopus drawing to make him "disappear!"

Birthday Cake Handprint

I have one final birthday project to blog about and then I promise I'll move on to something else! I found this cute idea on Pinterest to make a birthday cake out of your child's hand print! I'm not sure if it will work after age five, but at least it will be cute until your child's 6th birthday. That, and I'm a sucker for making things out of handprints!!

Carefully color your child's palm with the first color of paint. We just used finger paints since they're washable and afterwards Molly (5) and Ben (2) got free rein to paint however they wanted. Next, color only a finger per year of your child's age. ie Ben just turned two so I only colored two of his fingers with paint! I liked using a different color for each finger... aka "candle!"

Now have your child spread out their fingers and place their hand flat on the paper. What shows up is a cute little birthday cake with the correct number of candles! Add orange or yellow flames to the tips of your candles and glitter or painted decoration to your birthday cake if desired. I labeled each of my kid's picture with their name and age. These will be so fun to display at each birthday!

Birthday Interview - 20 Questions!

I've read the idea before to interview your child every year on their birthday. Some people go so far as to even record their child's answers on video. I've half-heartedly interviewed Molly(5) before, but had trouble thinking up questions. I think she was a little young, too. This year, however, I finally found an actual list of 20 questions to ask your child each year on Pinterest!

I tweaked a couple of the questions and interviewed Molly on her 5th birthday. Her answers were so sweet and sincere! I thought she might give some silly answers but she took the process very seriously! I plan to print out a nice copy of her answers and include them in her baby book each year. Hopefully I can start asking Ben(2) the same questions once he turns five... or maybe sooner.

My favorite answers of Molly's were her favorite holiday: Mother's Day!! ... and what does she want to be when she grows up? A farmer... except a farmer with penguins on her farm!

Here is the list of questions I used for my child's Birthday Interview:

1. What is your favorite color?

2. What is your favorite toy?

3. What is your favorite fruit?

4. What is your favorite tv show?

5. What is your favorite thing for lunch?

6. What is your favorite outfit?

7. What is your favorite snack?

8. What is your favorite game?

9. What is your favorite animal?

10. What is your favorite book?

11. What is your favorite song?

12. Who is your best friend?

13. What is your favorite movie?

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside?

15. What is your favorite drink?

16. What is your favorite holiday?

17. What do you like to take with you to bed at night?

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?

19. What do you want to eat for your birthday dinner?

20. What do you want to be when you grow up?

Fun Birthday Books to Read With Your Child

I just thought I'd take a moment to share some of my favorite "birthday books" I read with my kids at bedtime. These titles don't mention a birthday, so you wouldn't necessarily find them in a search.

Here's one we've been reading forever and it's one of Molly's(5) favorites year 'round. *I can't believe I had to just type that Molly is five!! Her birthday was Friday and I still can't believe I have a five-year-old! Anyway... The Jolly Barnyard by Annie North Bedford is a Little Golden Book Classic. It goes through all the farm animals and what they eat and what they do for the farmer, all on Farmer Brown's birthday.

A Little Fairy Magic by Julia Hubery has a really cute story line about a sweet little mouse on her birthday who does some "real" magic for her little brother. Of course since Molly has a little brother, Ben(2), it's perfect for her! **I can't believe I had to just type that Ben is two!! His birthday was on Saturday and I still can't believe my baby is already two! Anyway...

My daughter is really into scary things like vampires, witches, Frankenstein and Darth Vader, so Wolf's Coming! by Joe Kulka is right up her alley. It's a surprising story about all the animals running away from Wolf before he sees them. We have fun finding the blue balloon on every page and it has a very fun and NOT scary ending!

Finally, one of my personal favorites is Every Cowgirl Needs a Horse by Rebecca Janni. It is so cute and cleverly written! She tells a story of a little cowgirl living in a regular neighborhood who just wants a horse for her birthday. At the beginning, she "shakes the sleep from her braids" and from that moment on I love reading every word!

Here are links to each of these books on Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Jolly-Barnyard-Little-Golden-Book/dp/0375828427/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331525211&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Little-Fairy-Magic-Julia-Hubery/dp/1561487139/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331525247&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Wolfs-Coming-Carolrhoda-Picture-Books/dp/1575059304/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331525254&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Every-Cowgirl-Needs-Horse-Rebecca/dp/0525421645/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331524605&sr=8-1

Excavator Birthday Cake

    My kids' birthdays are only one day apart - March 9th and March 10th, so we have a pretty busy couple of days! My son turned 2 (!) and had a construction-themed birthday party. I found directions for a really cute no-bake cake on familyfun.com. It was a little easy and a lot of fun. Here's the link for the instructions online and how I did it:

Family Fun

http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/edible-excavator-cake-688626/

The recipe called for a pound cake but I couldn't find one anywhere so I bought an angel food cake and it worked great! I cut off about a third of it and placed it on top.


Then I covered the whole thing in yellow frosting. I also frosted a Twinkie to be the loader, and half a Twinkie to be the bucket. Check out my previous blog HEREfor my frosting recipe. Here's a link to it:


http://walkinthesunshineblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/lizard-birthday-cake.html

The arms of the loader are two Twix candy bars! Next, I piped on an outline of the loader, some windows and and a driver using melted chocolate. It was a little harder to control than frosting, but it dried really quickly and didn't blend into the yellow. This was all done a day in advance, so my cake spent some time in the fridge and held up great.

The day of the party I added all the candy extras. I used gum drops as lights on top and both the front and back lights. Four mini chocolate donuts made perfect tires... and it was my personal favorite part of the cake to eat! Another Twix bar makes the smoke stack and yellow jelly beans made the spikes on the bucket. The hardest part was working with those darn yellow Twizzlers! I finally just stuck them in place with toothpicks and a lot of frosting!

The final step was to crush some Oreos and spread it around to create dirt, along with some chocolate candy rocks I found at Wal-Mart! This cake was so fun to make and if you leave off the bucket part it is so easy! Even that part wasn't so hard... and definitely worth it for my sweet 2-year old baby boy!

Lizard Birthday Cake

My daughter, Molly, had her 5th birthday party this past weekend at a super fun place called Leaping Lizards in Olathe, KS. When I asked her what kind of birthday cake she wanted for the party, she decided on a pink lizard cake! I agreed and immediately began searching my cookbooks, magazines and online for a template. Unfortunately, all I came up with was some very professional looking cakes or very silly looking ones. I just didn't find what I was looking for!

Luckily I came across a crocodile cake on familyfun.com and it was the perfect shape I was looking for! Following their directions with just a few tweaks, I was able to put together a pink lizard cake for my little girlie! Here is a link to the cake directions I found:


 Family Fun

First, I started with a round bundt cake pan and just used a boxed cake mix (party confetti, per Molly's request!). I let the cake cool completely before I took it out of the pan and began cutting. You might even want to freeze it first to make it easier. Anyway, I cut the cake into three equal sections. I sliced one of the sections diagonally from one end to the other.

Place the two full pieces next to each other on your platter so they form opposite curves. Cut off the corners of your lizard's head to make it more rounded. This was a change from the original directions I found online. Then place one of your diagonally sliced pieces slanting down to become your lizard's tail, and trim it to the shape you want. Finally, cut the other diagonally sliced piece into smaller chunks that will be come feet and place them along the sides of your lizard. Note: I also had to slice off the bottom of each of my pieces so the lid to my cake container would fit over the cake for transportation, so be sure to allow room if you need it! Don't worry if your cake doesn't fit together like a perfect puzzle - the frosting will cover any imperfections!


Now here is the most important part: FREEZE YOUR CAKE! This way, when you frost it there won't be so many crumbs to get in your way! Meanwhile, make or color your frosting. I made homemade frosting and used food coloring to make it hot pink.

Here is my recipe for frosting:

Blend together 1 stick of butter and 1/2 cup of shortening. Mix in 3 cups of powdered sugar... maybe a little extra, until fluffy. Finally, stir in 1 teaspoon of vanilla, 1 tablespoon of milk, and 1 egg white. Add in your food coloring and if it's too thick, just add a little extra milk. Yum!!

Ok, now frost your cake. Use more than you think you need! You can do all of these steps a day or two ahead of time... just freeze or refrigerate the cake until you need it. Then, the day of your party, add on all the fun candy decorations! I used gum drops in alternating colors to make the spikes down my lizard's back. I cut two white gum drops in half to be the whites of it's eyes, then stuck a chocolate chip on each for the pupil. Pink jelly beans made perfect claws on the feet, and I cut a licorice twist to fit for the tongue - I even forked it with kitchen shears! Happy 5th birthday to my special little girl!!