lifeasmomandstuff: OctoParty!

I have sooo much I could blog about from this summer and hopefully I will find some time to do so but I had to share the fun we had this past weekend celebrating Nolan's birthday! We finished two with a bang from fireflies in the Smokies to zoo trips and touching jellyfish at the beach! To celebrate Nolan turning three it was only appropriate to chose an Octonauts theme because we spend so much time with Captain Barnacles and his crew anyway.

If you have ever experienced an Octonaut obsession, you are well aware of how hard it is to find anything related to them that isn't an expensive toy at Toys R Us. Thankfully I found BirthdayExpress, an online party city times a million. They had the perfect Octonaut themed party supplies and the more you buy, the better deal you get.

I told myself I would never be the water bottle mom, but this was too easy! We printed them out on photo paper so it wouldn't be too thin and they turned out perfectly! Here is the link:

http://halegrafx.com/printables/free-printable-octonauts-water-bottle-labels/

Nolan is obsessed with Chick-Fil-A nuggets and lets be real, who isn't? So it's a pretty easy choice for what to serve. Plus a few prepackaged snacks which are easier to grab and if there are leftovers we picked our favorite foods so they are definitely not going to waste.

Peso's Medical Boxes for favors included:

Kwazii's Pirate Eye Patches

Turnip's molding clay

Shellington's Midnight Zone Glowstick

Inkling's Library Chalk

Eyepatches and medical boxes came with the birthdayexpress kit

Everything else came from the Dollar Tree, super easy and simple.

There was also plenty of room for the kids to put their pinata candy in their boxes!

Decorated the tables with Oconaut toys that we already had. I had this theme in my head for a while so I also scored some pretty cheap additional OctoPods at consignment sales for a fourth of what they cost new!

So, if you are reading this you already know how spoiled Nolan is but also that we have the best family members in the world that we wouldn't be able to live without. Obviously between my aunt to help plan, shop and run around with us, my uncle to make these AMAZING Nolan-sized Octonaut cut outs, my sister to make the perfect delicious cake and my mom and everyone else to set up and help the fun happen we are so thankful! The party would not have been such a success without them.

Nolan has some of the cutest friends in all of the land.

The photobooth was 3 year old sized so that they could get in all the action.

I made Octonaut faces for the photobooth out of paperplates like I saw on Pinterest however....... I am not as crafty as I thought I was! Just used them as a little corner filler.

One of my biggest rules for myself during a party: make sure to get a picture with the birthday boy! Don't do all the work and not have a photo to make the memory last forever.