August Lincoln Winter: Surfer Dude Party Details

I can't believe nearly 2 months have passed since August's first birthday party and I'm finally getting around to posting about it! Sheesh. Too busy!

As mentioned in the previous post, for the first summertime birthday party in our family, I chose a "Little Surfer Dude" theme. I blame my discovery of Pinterest for the extent to which I carried out the theme, but I love it! What really made the party a success was all the HELP I had from family and friends the day of the party, and my friend Kimmarie sharing her incredible talent with a camera to take all of these stunning pictures! This post is all about the party details. Next will come the fun and the people at the party!

The invitation:

This is a printable I found on etsy, and I love the simple, vintage feel of it. However, after sending invitations, my continued planning led me in a different direction and the style of the party doesn't exactly match. Hope no one was offended by that choice. :)

I got the painted ceramic surfboard, which precisely matches the color scheme of the entire party, at a garage sale across the street from my house. Yeah. Ordered kids' sunglasses online in bulk.

Found these fun burlap-style bags and raffia at papermart.com.

I decorated the party hats myself!

All these printables are from another etsy shop - I decided they were a better fit for my party than the ones that matched the invites.

My parents host a lot of parties, and they like to have the food served inside and seating out on the patio. I did not want the party separated that way, especially since the food is so central to the party and so much of the "theme" is represented on the table! I'm really happy with how the outdoor buffet setup turned out.

My cake turned out to be a masterpiece, thanks to Diedre!

Inside the ombre ocean cake. The "sand" is crushed graham crackers.

This is August's own little cake, topped with a homemade chocolate surfboard!

Hawaiian Ham Sandwiches, Tropical Seashell Chicken Salad, Grilled Pineapple, "Shark Teeth" (provolone triangles), Dried Coconut, "Shark-Infested Waters" (blue Jell-o jigglers with gummy sharks - TIP: wait until the boiling liquid has cooled off and started to set before putting in the sharks, they melt!)

The mini donuts will be August's traditional birthday treat every year now! His big sister Madelyn has had a giant cupcake cake every birthday. Traditions are fun!

I just happened to have a DeMarle silicon mold that I think is supposed to be football shapes...but when filled only 1/4" or so, made perfect surfboards! For most of them, I piped melted chocolate in the design down first (stripes, letter A, number 1, etc.), then piped the background color on top. Then when the chocolate was re-set, I popped them out and the design was smooth on top!