BACKYARD BEACH PARTY-2ND B-DAY Hello again. Last year we received a honorable mention with our daughter's first birthday idea and believe it or not, time flies and we just celebrated her second birthday. Now that we moved to Puerto Rico we had to celebrate Anais Sofia's birthday with the whole family and all of our friends. We chose the "backyard beach party" theme because she loves to play in the water and living in the Caribbean we have the sun and warm weather throughout the year.  For the invitations we used a SEA-LIFE creatures cards indicating to bring swimsuits. As each guest arrived, they were taken to decorate a cupcake that would be displayed at the cake table. Of course, we had fish, dolphin and star's sprinklers to decorate them and different sea creatures' jewels to put on top of whip cream that simulated the waves of the sea. The cake was made by our aunt, who created a beach using brown sugar for the sand,sea shells, blue frosty for the sea and REAL GOLD FISHES swimming in a clear fishtank on top of the cake! The kids received the b-day hat's: foam visors with tri-d turtles, whales, sharks and fishes. They just loved them! On our backyard we had 3 pools, an octopus sprinkle toy, beach umbrellas with beach chairs for kids and for adults, beach tents, towels, beach balls, beach toys, you name it! We played a "dolphin ring toss game" and gave prizes to every kid. We also played the "song-chair game" in which the kids go dancing around the chairs and when the music stops they seat. And to add more fun, we had water balloons that the kids had to throw to our cousin's head, who wore a helmet for the game.   The adults had a lot of fun also. They played basketball and dominoes and helped with the BBQ. We had hamburgers, hot dogs, and puertorican dishes like "guineitos en escabeche" , "sandwichitos de mezcla", albondigas (meatballs), "antipasto de pollo", "pastelillitos de carne", "quesitos" and "mantecaditos".   Anais Sofia had a "little mermaid swimsuit" and a "mermaid princess" goggles.  For the happy birthday song we changed her to a beautiful  dress that had some fishes on front. The kids ate the cupcakes they decorated  and ice cream. And our tableware had the seacreatures' print. The piñata was a sun with sunglasses and the kids enjoyed hitting it and taking all the candy. And as a thank you gift we gave every kid a sand bucket filled with sand toys, a shovel, goggles, sunglasses, water squirts, stickers and candy. The kids then went back to have more fun at our "beach" and used all their "beach assortment treats". All of the treats were found at the dollar store and oriental trading catalog. Everyone had something to say about the birthday and all the fun they had. Even our five month old son, Gabriel, had a blast. We can't wait to plan the next birthday.