Aquarium Party

Well, I’d say the combined birthday party at the Children’s Aquarium at Fair Park was a success despite the issues and amount of effort required leading up to it. My wife likes to throw a blowout bash every time she plans a party. Unfortunately, she was coordinating with two women who were more focused on cost than anything. It almost seemed like they wanted to do the bare minimum to fulfill their obligations rather than give their kids a party they’d remember forever. They also didn’t really want to put in the effort or time required to pull the thing off. So, my wife ended up doing pretty much all of it herself. 

I finally had to tell her that she needed to delegate some things to the other two and trust them to get it done. They’d do it if they were asked, but they weren’t going to go out of their way to volunteer. Which actually ended up working out quite well. My wife took the most important things, like decorations and cupcakes, so she could get what she wanted, and she delegated things like drinks and appetizers to someone else. We roped my mother-in-law and mother in to help get things ready, and we headed down early to get things set up.

The staff was extremely nice, and they provided a little party room for us to occupy. My wife had gone wild on ocean-themed balloons, cupcake toppers, plates, and napkins. So, the whole place ended up looking like a magical under-the-sea paradise. I overheard another little boy passing by the room ask his mother, “Why didn’t they do all of that for my birthday party?!” She replied, “That wasn’t the aquarium, they did that themselves.” That made me beam with pride for my wife. She had pulled off a birthday that other kids were jealous of…you couldn’t ask for more than that. And despite their roadblocks at every turn, the other two ladies were genuinely impressed with how things turned out. They’d been to our parties before, so maybe they should have had a little more faith in her. After all, that’s why they wanted to team up for the birthday to begin with!

The guests started to arrive just as we were putting the finishing touches on the decorations, and the kids were very excited to see each other outside of school. They chattered loudly with each other, doling out hugs to every newcomer that arrived, while the parents stood awkwardly in the corners. When everyone was there, we sang happy birthday to the Three Musketeers, Troy, Misha, and Sasha. They ate up the attention, making faces and hamming it up while people snapped photos. Then, we dug into the food and cupcakes. We had gotten the cupcakes from Smallcakes, and my wife had opted for different flavors…red velvet, chocolate-chocolate, caramel, cookies and cream, lemon, strawberry, and one that looked like a Hostess CupCake. They were divine!

Now hopped up on sugar, the kids were getting restless, so they brought in a yellow Bearded Lizard for everyone to pet. She was really chill, probably used to being touched by a hundred random fingers, and choosing to resign herself to her fate and get it over with. The kids were very excited to feel her, jostling each other to get closer. My wife on the other hand looked like she was in pain the entire time she was stroking the lizard’s bumpy skin.

After that animal encounter, they led us to Stingray Bay. This was a giant pool filled with stingrays of all sizes, ages, and colors. Each kid got a cup of food that had a few shrimp in it (which most kids turned their noses up at) and brief instructions on how to feed the stingrays (which everyone ignored). They just wanted to stick their hands in the water and touch a real live stingray. And the stingrays happily complied.

As if on cue, the food was unceremoniously tossed into the water instead of letting the stingrays vacuum it out of their hands. So, shrimp was floating around everywhere being slurped up by the fastest and most aggressive stingrays in a frenzy. But this also meant the stingrays were distracted and didn’t really notice the dozen little hands sliding across their slimy backs. Some of the stingrays would even poke their heads out of the water to get special attention. The parents, myself included, seemed to enjoy the experience just as much as the kids.

After about twenty minutes, we reluctantly pulled everyone back to the party room to wrap things up. While the kids and other parents went off to continue enjoying the aquarium, we stayed behind to divvy up gifts and clean up the room. The party was an enjoyable experience, and I’d definitely recommend it to others.