a peek inside the fishbowl

Sarah’s official birthday isn’t until Monday. That means that we have the whole weekend to celebrate beforehand. (!)

The agenda was packed. As per Fishbowl tradition, it began with a special breakfast in bed. Sarah requested breakfast sausages, pancakes, and fruit. So that’s what she got:

We spent the morning tidying up and getting ready for a party at 4Cats Art Studio. (They are a blog patron, but we’d be 4Cats fans even if they weren’t.) It is a bright, lovely and creative space, a great place to have a kid’s birthday party no matter the age:

On the agenda: a “pop art” silkscreening workshop and collective art project.

First, the girls created their own little silkscreen projects on special art paper. Here they are, helping Sarah keep her frame pressed to the paper:

Did you know that silkscreens are made of real silk? And that Andy Warhol owned 25 cats, all named Sam? I’m still not sure if that’s kooky or smart, but these are the memorable little bits of information that you learn at a workshop like this one. :)

Here are a couple of their finished pieces. Funny thing, I assumed the girls would all paint regular kinds of brown cats, but it was good to see purple, polka-dotted varieties, as well as cats surrounded by rings of fire and rainbows. It was kind of cool to see:

The girls were there to help Sarah with a big painting of her own. Picture a giant canvas (44″ x 44″) attached to a table. On it was silkscreened a giant butterfly in blue. First, the girls painted inside the body of the butterfly. Sarah chose the colours; pink, orange, and red. They used thick brushes and watered-down paint, which blended together for great effect:

Afterwards they painted the background in blues and greens. Here’s a sneak peek at the results of their hard work:

We are paying a little extra to have it stretched on a frame. I was blown away. The end result is so beautiful! The photo doesn’t do it justice at all. I love that Sarah has a wonderful memento of her party. Once it’s stretched I might try to find a way to have the girls all sign the back.

After the painting part was done there was time to have a snack (fruit dipped in cooked chocolate pudding, which was a huge hit), fizzy lemonade and… the birthday cake:

In lieu of loot bags each little girl received an inexpensive little stuffy. Sarah had taken the time to pick a special one for each guest. She knew that one girl loves monkeys and another liked dogs etc. We printed the gift tags the night before. (I found them online here, if you’d like some of the same. They’re free to download and print.) On the back, Sarah wrote each girl a little thank you for coming message.

These little guys were a huge hit:

It was a great party. It went by so quickly, and everyone seemed to have a good time. And there was no clean up at home afterwards! Yay!

We went home and opened gifts from Emma, and Mark and I.

Emma gave her a motorized butterfly in a jar, which sounds bizarre but was actually a huge hit. You tap on the lid and it flutters:

And Mark and I gave her a necklace I had picked out at Heavens to Betsy, a store I adore:

Also on the list: a brand new bike… but we haven’t been able to find the perfect one yet.

The afternoon was too nice to waste inside, so the girls played in the backyard until dinner.

The birthday girl chose to have dinner out. Sarah loves sushi, so we walked to Westboro Village and happily snagged a window-seat at MHK.

Here’s Emma, looking lovely while we waited for our meal to arrive:

And here is part of our delicious dinner:

We walked home, stuffed to the gills (no pun intended), and settled in to watch a movie.

Today is Birthday Celebration part II! But first, a shower and breakfast. :)