Under the Ocean Party

The child has gone ahead and turned 7. Selfish.

Despite her failure to cease this ridiculous growing up thing, we celebrated.

Really and truly I had grand plans NOT to have grand plans this year.

I was tired. I was over-stretched. I was not in the mood.

But it was one of those rare situations where every idea  you think of and everything you try works and not only that, it all comes together like a dream. So  it was all just a total pleasure.

I certainly had no intention of making individual mermaid tails. But then I got started and…well, they whipped up like a softserve.

The birthday mermaid requested a full costume and after seeing the most scintillating fish-scale-esque fabric at my local store, her costume also came together in about 20 minutes.

It’s just a  tube with tail sewed on at back and front and some straps.

My view that the costume ended up looking a bit more like something one of Donna Summer’s backup singers (or indeed the Donna herself) might have worn in the 80s was not conveyed to the birthday mermaid.

These sweet little merbabes

are fishing for the elusive and little-known paperclip-nosed button fish. A very rare creature.

Got one!

In the background I had a recording of underwater sounds playing. It was all watery trickles and swooshes and bubbly sounds. Great for creating the mood but the downside was an inordinate number of trips to the toilet.

As well as fishing, we also had a couple of  hilarious games of Dead Fish which is Musical Statues only fishy. I also enlisted my handsome husband to hold the fish pinata. He’s a risk taker from way back.

As it turns out, he’s also a dab hand at carving blow fish from rock melons.

We started the food with some Seaweed Juice ( a horribly healthy smoothie concoction of spirulina and fruit)

And then served the blow fish, Octo-dip, fish fingers and sushi.

Dessert was the cake.

As well as creating all the sea creatures we used to decorate the walls, Sophia and Olive also made most of the invitations themselves. We went with messages in a bottle.

The take-home party bags were also really simple. The fish came from this great free printable.

Inside each were just a few little ocean-themed treats.

Can you imagine the squeals when I told the merbabes they each got to take their tail home?

The only time we were similarly deafened was when a shark swam into the proceedings.

(I cracked myself up by playing the Jaws theme to a sea of hushed, expectant merbabes prior to the shark coming in).

All in all, we had a whale of a time (sorry – I can’t help myself) and the birthday girl was proper delighted.

I got lots of ideas for this party from Pinterest. Check out my inspiration and the sources on my Under the Sea Party Board.

The mermaid tails and cake are all twirling betty and I’ll be doing a quick  tutorial for the tales in a little bit. And happy to answer any questions about the cake which, if I do say so myself, packed a big punch for very little effort.