So, the mermaid birthday party thing….it all started when I saw the most adorable mermaid plates and tablecloth in Pottery Barn Kids.  “Hey, Livi, do you want to have a mermaid party this year?”  Of course she did!  Addie was just a couple months old and I knew I didn’t have the time to go all crazy making stuff for the birthday party so I ran back to PBK and grabbed the plates, the tablecloth, and the cutest hanging puffer fish thingee.  Easy, I thought.  She’ll be four, we’ll just have a few kids, I’ll keep it simple.  Surely, though, I could make the invitations, we only need a handful….

Hmmm…what sort of quick and easy decorations should we do?  Wouldn’t it be cute if we had some under-the-sea accents?  So, I found some really cute mermaid/starfish/seahorse cookie cutters here, and I traced them onto cardstock, cut them out, and accented them with a little Stickles.  Easy to do just a few at a time when I could grab a spare minute.  I ended up sticking them all over the windows and the walls.  Then I decided to hole-punch a bunch more and tie them from balloon strings to give the impression that the fish were swimming around the room.  I don’t know if anyone else “got it,” but I LOVED it – and the kids liked to have something to grab onto to drag the balloons all over the house.

Next, we needed activities.  I did a quick search on the internet for “mermaid party game ideas,” and there were SO many ideas.  We ended up doing a treasure hunt (mainly because I found this awesome chest at Joann’s and I wanted an excuse to buy it), sand necklaces, and a fishing game. 

Oh yes, I suppose we should feed the kids….after all, I did buy mermaid plates.  Wouldn’t it be fun to do fishy food?  Goldfish crackers, blue jello with swedish fish on top (don’t put them in it, they’ll melt and look totally disgusting and you’ll have to freak out a little and send your husband to the grocery store in the middle of the night for more blue jello), pb&j sandwiches cut out with your starfish cookie cutters (don’t you love dual purpose purchases), octopus dogs (this was so cool – cut the bottom two thirds of hot dogs into eight “legs”, boil them and they curl and look like octopuses (octopi?)

Dare to ask your daughter if she thinks it would be fun to wear mermaid tails for the birthday party. I don’t know what I was thinking when this came out of my mouth.  It really didn’t take too long to sew mermaid tails – I made eight or so, just quick, not-so-perfect tails, but still…  All the girls wore them for about five minutes of the party (which I totally could have predicted, but I didn’t consider this before I let the idea fall on Livi’s ears).  However, I think that the two or so pictures that I took before the tails came off made it all worthwhile.  I mean, how do you look at Addie’s baby mermaid tail and not smile?

Now, I have to admit that the dessert part is where things got a little out of hand.  But, we really like dessert around here.  And the “cake” is the part that I always do.  For some reason, I can’t let the cake go even though the kids really just want cupcakes.  So, you saw the mermaid cupcakes in my how-to over at Life as Lori.  I love how they turned out. 

And then the actual cake…a sandcastle, a mermaid on a rock, and about 15 hours work worth of making fish from candy molds. 

Anyone know how to photoshop that sippy cup out of the picture??

Dear Olivia… Thank you for letting me get carried away.  I really can’t help myself.  You’re cute.