Top Ate...Goldfish Birthday Party Ideas

9-25-13

My son recently turned one and we threw a goldfish themed birthday party. It was "off the hook"!  I really hope you just laughed.  My family has been rolling their eyes at my lameness every time I told them that the party was going to be "off the hook".  But, to be honest, it really was!  

A couple overall tips:

• When planning a party on a budget, whether it's for adults or kids, pick a couple colors (maybe two or three) and go with it.  You can buy very inexpensive paper goods, balloons, ribbons and decor on the Internet.  When it's all put together, it looks great and you really didn't spend that much.  Since Quinn's party was goldfish themed, we used shades of blue and orange.
• Edit your house.  I removed a lot of my tabletop tchotchkes and wall hangings so the focus of the party was not on my usual decor, but rather the decor of the party.

I wish I could have had a Top 10, 11 or 12.  I had so many ideas...look on the Finnster page for the overflow!  

Goldfish Cookies

1. Frosted Sugar Cookies: I have used this sugar cookie recipe for years to make Christmas cookies and it really can apply anywhere.  I made the cookies about a week ahead and froze them until the day before.  They still came out great!  I (and it really is all about what I like, right?) like them somewhat chewy, so I slightly under-bake them. 

Goldfish Cupcakes

2. Goldfish Cupcakes: I LOVE frosting.  Did you catch that?  One more time....I LOVE frosting.  The cake to frosting ratio on a cupcake is perfect.  I am definitely an amateur cake decorator, but I think these came out pretty cute.  I do not have any fancy cake decorating tools except a large French tip that I got from my local craft store for $1.00.  I actually didn't even use a pastry bag, Ziploc bags with the corner cut off worked just as well. I got lazy and used a boxed mix....most people didn't notice, didn't care, or were really polite...

Goldfish Bar

3. Goldfish Bar: This all came together at the last minute.  When I originally planned the party, I wanted to just put different types of goldfish in bowls for people to take from.  This is a germ nightmare, which really doesn't matter to me, but it does to SOME PEOPLE...we won't mentions names here.  So, I used cupcake liners for portions and the actual bags as labels for each type of goldfish.  BTW, when I opened that S'Mores bag and saw tiny marshmallow goldfish, I nearly died from the cuteness/yumminess factor.

Beta and Real Goldfish

4. Beta and REAL Goldfish: What’s a goldfish party without the fish?  My husband and I had a small marital dispute over the fish.  He was afraid I would just flush them after the party. While this did not offend him, he was concerned that there may be some guests who could be upset by it. EVERYONE PLEASE KNOW, I found good homes for all of them!  Thanks to Mrs. Morales’s Pre-K class!  To add a little more charm, I tied/taped some of my left over ribbons around the bowls.  Ribbon makes everything prettier!

High Chair Ribbon Banner

5.  High Chair Ribbon Banner: I really thought Quinn was going to rip off this banner before he even got in the chair.  I was totally wrong.  A week later, it's still attached...definitely more robust than I thought!  Duct tape held my first car (a 1986 Volvo station wagon) together and it seems to stand up well against a one year old too.  Click on the link for assembly directions or email me! I can customize and make one for you!

Fish Fruit

6. Fishy Fruit: I served salads and sandwiches for lunch.  With all the mayonnaise-y-ness going on, I needed SOMETHING healthy to serve, right?  After slicing my fruit into one inch thick pieces, I used cookie cutters to cut out stars, fish and ducks. There was a lot of excess that I put at the bottom of the serving bowl as not to waste it.  It presented as just fishy shapes with the excess hidden underneath.

Come Make a Splash Invitations

7. Come Make a Splash Invitations: I was not big on handwriting invitations and certainly didn't want to spend money to have invitations printed.  So, I made them myself on PowerPoint.  I know that's probably not the most conventional program to use, but I'm very familiar with it, so it didn't take long.  A little bit of clip art mixed with some fancy font...and there you have it.

Name Banner for Cake

8. Cupcake Name Banner: Ok, so I know this is not fish themed, but I couldn't help myself...I had to put it on the list.  The ease to cuteness ratio was just too high! I was trying to think of a creative way to display Quinn's name on the cupcakes without ruining my frosting.  I used two paper straws, some thread, tape and round tags from the scrapbooking section of my local craft store.  I was thrilled with how adorable it came out.  My inspiration came from this site.  I can customize and make one for you too!  Email me!