My daughter is obsessed with mermaids lately and I wanted to steer clear of the typical Ariel party (because I like to make my life more difficult.) I wanted to try a balloon arch and it went pretty well for my first one! I chose deep blues, teals, and shimmery gold to give an ocean vibe to the party.
My daughter Liesl, is animal obsessed. I mean, completely in love with animals of almost any kind. For her 7th birthday party, she told me (almost 9 months in advance, mind you) that she wanted to have a mobile aquarium to come to our house for her next birthday! Ok, I thought – well that’s a tall order, but I’ll see what I can do! So, I got to work and found that I could, indeed, rent a “mobile touch tank and aquarium” from The Aquarium of the Pacific. I booked the truck to come to our house, and Liesl’s ‘Under the Sea’ party theme was born!
Color Scheme: For Liesl’s Party, I wanted to make it bright – as in, fluorescent bright! I bought a TON of neon colored spray paint. I used neon orange, yellow, hot pink, and aqua as the main colors of the party. I love a brightly colored party, but this one really took the cake, so to speak! I bought lots of starfish and seashells, and plastic coral for fish tanks, and spray painted everything in bright colors to match my color scheme.
Decor: I found aqua tulle fabric that was embroidered with aqua sequins that looked like a coral reef and sea grass. I used this fabric as an overlay over top of some iridescent aqua fabric that resembled mermaid scales. I also decorated the tables with my neon-painted starfish, seashells, and coral, and added ocean animal mylar balloon bouquets to the center of the tables.
Food Buffet Table: I had fun creating some ocean-themed food for the buffet table! Seashells (shells and cheese), fish and chips (potato chips and goldfish), crab legs (carrot sticks), shark teeth and starfish (cheese wedges and star crackers), and an orange pepper octopus in a bed of hummus.
Cake and Dessert Table: Liesl’s cake was by far, one of my favorite elements from the party! I had the cake covered in blue marbled fondant to resemble ocean waves. Then, I added a bunch of fondant ocean items – coral, sea grass, starfish, sea urchins, etc. I loved the clamshell with the number 7 on the very top that was made by Les Pop Sweets. Other sweets – clamshell sugar cookies, starfish cookies, and white chocolate seashell lollipops – were also on the dessert table. It was like a sugary sweet under the sea world of goodness!
Mobile Aquarium: Many thanks to the Aquarium of the Pacific for bringing their mobile touch tank full of ocean animals – sea urchins, sea stars, sea stars, sand sharks, and more. The kids had a great time touching and learning all about the sea life, and they even did a presentation in our backyard with shark jaws and a giant blow-up sea turtle.
All graphic signage items that I made for the party are available in my Etsy Shop, Entertaining with Emily!
When Lis was turning two I decided to go for an under the sea theme, since she loved fishes, turtles and all sea creatures.
I once again tried to have a very vibrant and colorful party. We gave her photograph for the relatives to keep and the kids got beach toys as party favors.
Since the kids were a little bigger than last time, we rented some outdoor entertainment for the kids.
My husband and I are avid scuba divers so when it came time to chose a theme for Jackson’s 1st Birthday, there was no doubt what it would be. It was so much fun to see our love for all things underwater come to life in ways that a child would enjoy. In years to come, I know Jackson will choose his own themes and that I may not like them all so I really enjoyed the chance to create an Under the Sea party while he would let me!
This is the second year Tyler has picked out what theme he’s wanted. Last year it was a Puppy Party, and this year he requested a “baby turtle party.” So we got to work designing an Under the Sea Birthday Party for his celebration of a big 5 years old. He’s going to be starting Kindergarten this year!
Our tables were set up with party favors for our young guests as they arrived. Each of them got to pick out a bright pair of sunglasses of their choice to strike a pose in front of the photo wall. They also received a personalized sand bucket to gather their party favors in at game time.
Even though a baby turtle party was the requested theme, we added in some whales to the designs as well. A bright blue, navy and green theme was chosen for a summertime feel.
For our party table setup:
We wrapped milk bottles filled with blue Gatorade with twine to give a nautical look.
Custom cookies were ordered from The Sweet Tooth Cakery in Tampa again this year. Pamela does such an amazing job on the cookies, they always look and match perfectly! We got the cake from Target and topped it with a wooden anchor.
The vanilla cake pops, oyster cookies and “crab” turkey or ham and cheese sandwiches we made ourselves. The oyster cookies are made with Manila wafer cookies on the outsides and colored frosting with white pearl Sixlets in the middle.
Games/Activities:
The kids took their turn playing a fishing game with a wooden dolly I hot glued twine to make the fishing poles. A magnet was on the end of the poles and on each fish. They got to catch 2 fish each, receiving one prize per fish. For our second activity, we made sand art. Each guest got their own plastic bottle and put in the colors of sand of their choice.
Kendall of Kendall Nickerson Photography took the photos. She did a wonderful job and was great to work with!
I’ve enjoyed sharing our party with you and hope we’ve given you a few ideas for your own.
When you have children that are five years apart but their birthdays are only one day apart (June 28 and June 29) you have to put on your thinking cap to come up not only with a theme that can be used for a little boy and girl but also one that will work with a five year age difference. I wanted to make the party memorable for my six year old daughter who now had to share her family birthday parties with her new little brother but also wanted to add some special touches for my one year old. Then it hit me, we would have an under the sea extravaganza with a focus on mermaids for my daughter and pirates for my son. It was magical and so much fun to plan!
The main idea was to have a party that was simple, but bright, and that it followed a theme very loosely. Two years ago, we had a party for our oldest girl that was a success! It was beautiful and simple, catered to adults and kids. So I wanted to repeat that experience in a very similar way. Instead, of a circus theme, we went with “under the sea” theme. We kept the idea of using vintage colors for the design of invitations, labels, and overall decor. Vintage colors worked well the first time, so we couldn’t escape using it as a cohesive way to marry the flowers, with the banner, balloons, piñata, etc. And like the circus theme party, the food for this party also related to theme and we either served seafood items, or foods that we could allude to sea life. So under the sea it was!
I worked on a simple pattern to represent water and designed a few elements (submarine, whale, and sun) to throw in another color or two as part of the design for the tags, cards, labels, invitation, etc. This variation of colors and elements was, then, represented in the decor of the party in the form of tassel garlands (water), balloons (sun), a photo prop (submarine), and a piñata (whale). The piñata was commissioned and it was a hit! The photo props I ordered on etsy, and the cake and desserts were made by a friend (fat gabby’s cakes on Facebook).
Everyone had a great time, especially our girl. photo credit: Tate Tullier
A fun, non-traditional take on the Little Mermaid birthday party