Octonauts and the Cold and Rainy Pool Birthday Adventure

I’ve always been stressed out about having park parties for my kids because we live in Seattle and there is always a slight chance of rain no matter how sunny a stretch of weather we get.  I don’t know why I didn’t apply this train of thought to having an outdoor POOL party but suddenly we were all signed up to have a pool party evening for my guys and I thought it was going to be the awesomest thing ever.  I guess I couldn’t figure out how to tie in Octonauts (remember we are all Octonauts all the time since at least Halloween in this house) going to the bowling alley, or the airplane museum or mini-golfing and this seemed an obvious fit.

The only problem was, the night before the party, we might have been “Octonauts in a Horrific Rain Storm” and then the day of the party we were “Octonauts Going to the Pool on the only Freezing Cold Evening We’ve had in Seattle this Summer” and I wasn’t sure how this adventure would fix itself at all.

I am totally thankful that the outdoor pool we picked for our party is delightfully warm.

And in the end it turned out lovely.

It even almost looked like the Blue Lagoon in Iceland at one point in the party because it was so chilly that the pool was steaming and all the grownups around the pool were wearing parkas.  I’m not kidding.  It was freezing cold.

But fun.

And since I tend to go over the top, the hubby wanted me to make this party pretty simple and the pool gives only about 15 minutes to setup.  So, we went with easy decorations like white beach balls with Sharpie marker and a few Octonauts touches on the table, but that is definitely all I did.  (And both sets of grandparents even helped make the toppers for the fruit.  I tend to put EVERYONE in the family to work when it comes to party-time.  Thank you all!)

My sis who runs the Steveston Cookie Company near Vancouver, British Columbia, made some AMAZING cookies for goody bags.  We’re so lucky because every year the kids ask her to make them a certain kind of cookie for their birthday and she always comes through.  I think we’re pretty spoiled.  I can’t believe she even got the little details on Captain Barnacles hat. 

And I am in love with Lyndsay Sung from Cococakeland up in Vancouver too and I’m determined to get her to make some cupcakes for our skating party as soon as we get this year’s date.  But since she isn’t in Seattle and has tutorials on her site, I attempted making my own Octonauts cakes for the guys and I was pretty happy with how they turned out.  (But I still need to figure out when I get to try her matcha and bean cake!  She is truly amazingly creative!)

Thankfully my sis also helped me make fondant toppers for the little cupcakes too and it was really easy just to plop them on top of some iced cupcakes I made using a recipe from Joy the Baker.  (I’m totally lucky to have some pretty creative people in my life!)

And I ordered a bunch of Six Strawberries Artisan Pops.  We usually do an ice cream bar at our parties but it had been so hot I worried about that creating a huge mess around the pool.  This was a fun frozen treat and I love local Seattle companies that create neat foods. I think my favorite was Lemon Coconut and my guys loved the Strawberry and Vanilla.

So we were thankful that like all Octonauts shows, this party that looked precarious at times, had a happy ending.  The guys were even able to wear their polar fleece Halloween costumes when they gave out their goody bags as guests left to go home.

(PS. if you don’t know the Octonauts, I am in love with them too.  This show is based on books created by two talented Vancouverites and it teaches my kids about sea animals and they know SO many neat facts about oceans because of the books and this show.  Thank you tons Meomi- we think you are pretty awesome!)

(PPS. if you’re curious about goody bags and other party supplies, we just used blue chevron and polka dotted paper bags from Impress Stamps and little sea-themed stuffed animals from Oriental Trading. I also bought the white beach balls from Oriental Trading and Octonauts stickers and themed party goods from Birthday Express.

Terumi

Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys.  She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live.  She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)