Today, we helped celebrate our friend Mackenzie’s 8th birthday. Her mom had given the neighborhood crew a list of gift ideas. I had selected some “Monster High” dolls and pets…you know, since I don’t get to go doll shopping so much. I told the boys last Tuesday, “ok…we have some time to kill, let’s pop in a store and buy Mackenzie’s Monster High dolls”. A unanimous groan went up through the car. “No mom…we want to buy Mackenzie a FISH!” <—Aiden. “Ya!! We want to get her a fish!” <—Logan

I called my friend Susan to find out if such a gift would even be permissible. We have owned a slew of beta fish. They are pretty, require no “actual” aquarium and don’t even need food on a daily basis. To my surprise, Susan said “absolutely! go for it!”. So…we went to PetSmart today and bought our friend a fish, a little tank, some food and other assorted fish gear. She was THRILLED to open our gift. My only worry is that my boys tend to be on a,“birthday gifts aren’t cool unless they come from the pet store” kind of kick. And so I issue a warning my friends…you invite us to your child’s birthday and…your gift might require a name and some sort of living arrangements!

And so…the challenge…how to wrap a fish. hummmmm. Mackenzie, being a very cool, un-girly girl, chose to have a volcano party. I helped Susan make the party favor bags so I had a nice design all set up on my cricket for the actual bag…complete with a, “caution, handle with care” label. Here is what I ended up doing:

This is the top of the bag. I had the aquarium and other stuff at the bottom, then layered some tissue paper and nestled the fish in it’s container right in.

I then threw a piece of red tissue paper on top and voila! If you need better instructions because you plan on buying and packaging a fish for YOUR next birthday gathering, feel free to post questions! ;)