Beachy Mermaid Birthday Bash!

Time to SHELLebrate! Our daughter is obsessed with all things mermaid, so we just had to celebrate her birthday with an under-the-sea mermaid themed party. We looked up tons of mermaid party ideas because no matter if we were playing games or eating yummy fish food, we wanted the kids to feel like mermaids! We bought a beautiful teal ombre birthday cake and put it on display on a big dessert buffet table. We found a gorgeous mermaid plastic tablecloth on Walmart.com to decorate the table, and then we stacked the cake, candy, and other treats on top. Walmart also had these mermaid fin-shaped centerpieces that were really cute, so we got a few of those to go in between all the snacks. For the finishing touch, we used conch shells, starfish, and sand dollars to decorate the rest of the table. The girls were so impressed with how the table turned out.
For the rest of the room, we hung up tissue paper pompoms to look like bubbles and hung up this cute mermaid tail garland. It really turned out so sweet and I think it created the perfect atmosphere for our mermaid party theme!

• What People Ate

  We set the table with the mermaid paper plates, napkins, and mermaid cups to match the plastic table cover. Our girls loved it and couldn’t wait to sit down for lunch! We served homemade pasta salad with pasta SHELLS, of course! We also had peanut butter and jellyfish sandwiches that I stamped with a cookie cutter to look like starfish. It was a big hit! I filled a fish bowl with Goldfish crackers for extra munchies. And then we had the birthday cake and ice cream. The disposable plates and cups made cleanup quick and easy so we could start all the mermaid games.

• What People Drank

  Ocean water! (blue punch mixed with Sprite)

• Desserts

  We displayed the birthday cake and all the other desserts on a big mermaid party table, complete with mermaid centerpieces and lots of shells!

• Party Favors

  We put some ocean themed party favors into adorable mermaid tail goodie bags. Rock candy was the “coral.” Plus we added candy bracelets for some edible mermaid bling, seashell shaped chocolates, and these plastic sea turtles (our daughter’s favorite animal) to the bags too. I tied off each of the mermaid bags with a bow. Easy!

• Activities / Games

  For a mermaid craft, we had the girls decorate their own mermaid princess wands! We just bought some cheap plastic wands from Walmart (one for each child) and then glued lots of tiny shells and plastic jewels to the wands. It was so fun and super easy, and the results were all so cute! And then once the wands are dry, everyone gets to take their mermaid wand home at the end of the day. No party is complete without a pinata, right? We got a pull-string style mermaid pinata because we didn’t want to worry about kids getting whacked with a pinata stick. Everyone was so psyched to play! We had the girls line up and take turns pulling off the strings until one finally broke open the pinata and all the loot fell out! We used more of the candy and favors to go inside, plus some fake gold coins as “mermaid treasure.” So fun! For the last activity, we just bought a pre-made mermaid party game from Walmart, because it was pretty inexpensive and easy. You play it like “Pin the Tail on the Donkey” but it was a seahorse. The blindfold, instructions, and everything you need was included. And the game pieces were that reusable self-stick plastic, so the girls played over and over.