Grant Fourth "Bite"day - Sharks!

Grant's fourth birthday was quite a success! We were lucky enough to have family in town to share it with. James' parents, James and Cheryl, his sister, Lauren, brother-in-law, TJ and their daughter, Carys all flew up for a visit from Texas. They were so wonderful on the day of the party! Huge helps which made it a great stress free day for all!
Texas James cooked his brisket which turned out fabulous and made the house smell delicious all day! It was so nice to know that the meal was in good hands and I did not need to give it a second thought! Thank you!
Lauren made the party favors, made the fish for the fish toss, helped decorate the cake (she is super artistic just like her brother), cleaned the house, tidied things up and all the while was taking care of her baby Carys whom is only 4 months old! She amazed me with her great attitude and the energy she had to get it all done! Thank you, Thank you! (She has earned herself a free ticket to come up for Grant's next birthday for sure!)

TJ was a wonderful help too! He and James made the one and only game we had for Grant's party this year which was a great success for not only the kids but also the adults. It was a very impressive Shark "fish" toss! They cut is from scratch and hand painted it. It really turned out awesome! TJ also had some great input on the cake decorating!

Grandma Cheryl was a great help by keeping iddlybits AKA Grant busy while we were all trying to pull this together!
The birthday boy posing in the Sharks mouth!
Tate got his turn.
Sarah Beth did actually put her head by the teeth but I was not quick enough to catch it. So this is what I got instead. I can't say that I blame her I would not have stuck my head through those jagged teeth either!
Ayden unfortunately was having nothing to do with posing at this time. I think the following picture may explain the type of mood she was initially in this day.
After the posing (or not posing) the tossing/throwing commenced. Grant and Tate loved how the bags hit the shark and would sometimes get stuck in his teeth. Check out the cute shark shirts they had on!
A couple of action shots!
Notice all the adults wistfully looking on. Wondering when their turn would be?


Ummm is there a dentist around? This shark really needs to floss his teeth!
Once the kids AND adults had there fill of tossing fun. We headed in for dinner.

The kids had there own table (the coffee table) that they were all able to eat together at.
Dinner consisted of YUMMY brisket (two types), mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, potato salad and zucchini herb casserole (Recipe here). The dinner really hit the spot for a summer day. The kids favorite was probably the corn on the cob as illustrated below.




After everyone had their fill of dinner we got out the cake! Carys volunteered to pose with it. Could she possibly be any cuter?!?! I mean seriously! :-)
A rare photo of the three of us. Grant being Grant of course!
So the day before the party I baked a from scratch strawberry cake (Grant's request) from a recipe that Amber found online. It turned out AWESOME if I do say so myself! (cake recipe here) I used fresh picked strawberries from Bells farm (right down the road) instead of frozen and it just oozed out the summer taste. I was so glad Grant came up with this since strawberries are in season this time of year. I think he just wanted it because it was pink but it really was wonderful tasting.

Overall Grant's fourth birthday was just what it should be a fun, happy celebration of his four years here. Thanks for everyone's help!