Maya's 3rd Birthday!

Maya had been talking about her birthday party for months! So I got kind of excited about it too and went a little above my standard cake and simple party decorations that I usually do. We found a really cute fish cake in an old Martha Stewart Baby magazine. That was the jumping off point for real goldfish in bowls for the favors, a wooden fishing booth so the children could "fish" for their goodie bag prizes, swimming and bubbles. The cake was completely from scratch, of course, since it was a Martha Stewart Cake. The frosting was really yummy. And, for the first time, I used my cake decorating set, with multiple colors and tips! Oh my! It was pretty involved, but I was happy with how it turned out. My sister-in-law Heather, was visiting here from Texas and she helped me a ton! She was the art director for the cake (She stayed up with me until the wee hours of the morning advising me on what step to do next on the cake.) She also gave us a huge gift of painting the ocean scene on the wooden fishing booth! She was up late for two nights painting and creating. It turned out great and the kids loved fishing for their prizes. For the fishing poles I used two big dowels, painted them green, drilled a hole in each one, and tied white sheer ribbon through the holes and a cute, black hook. Then I got clear paint cans from the craft store and put the prizes in those as the kids fished out their prizes. It was fun. But, I still don't know if it was worth all the work...