Dad's Fishing Themed Birthday Party

 Hi all! So April 30th was my Dad's birthday and we threw him a huge surprise party! I had been planning the party for a couple weeks and I knew that a fishing/backwoods theme would be perfect! He had really been missing home (Indiana) and I knew that this would not only surprise him, but also ease the homesickness a little bit. Most of our ideas where spinoffs of stuff we saw online, we just made it our own! We made everything in the pictures and it all could not have turned out better!! 

So first is the "Happy Birthday" banner pictured above. It took a lot of work but it turned out super cute! All I did was print out a bass silhouette off of Google Images and then I traced it onto poster board, cut it out, and wrote "Happy Birthday" on it. The fish have real fishing hooks through their lips and then we attached that to twine to give them a fresh catch look!

 This cute little chalk board was something we already had in our house, but we spruced it up a bit with some announcements you would see at a campground.

My mom made this adorable little sign out of some extra wood we just had lying around.  With some paint and some twine, they turned out adorable and will probably end up being a new permanent decoration in our house!

Of course, what is a fishing party without a tackle box!? We picked up a super cheap (I think it was like $6 or $7) tackle box at Walmart to store some clever snacks in. The fishing "reels" you see in the actual box are made out of Fudge Striped cookies and Giant Campfire Marshmallows. All I did was spread some melted chocolate (I used chocolate chips) on the cookies and then stuck them Fudge Stripe side in onto the marshmallows. That way the chocolate side is the outside of the reel, making it a little more realistic. We added some gummy worms and pretzel Goldfish to add more of a cutesy flare.

How adorable are these "cattails" though!? Super cute! All my mom did was take a Hostess Ho Ho and stick it on a skewer! SO fun!! They were a hit for sure!

Last, but most certainly not least is the cake! This cake turned out so amazing! We did a German Chocolate cake, my Dad's favorite, and incorporating it into the theme was a blast! It was a 2 layer cake with coconut pecan frosting in between the layers, crushed Oreos under the cake, chocolate frosting around the whole thing, MORE coconut pecan frosting on top and mini Twix bars for the "logs." Running out of creativity and time, we just made the flame out of crafting foam. 

We had an amazing time surprising my Dad and celebrating how thankful we are for him. I hope some of these ideas will spark some creativity in your brain and inspire you to throw a party! I love parties and surprising people that deserve it!