9126

Mermaid Party -5yr- Fish's Mouth Bean Bag Toss

July 2004

Lisa in Dallas, TX USA

Runner-Up

Mermaid Party 5 year old  For my daughter’s 5th birthday, she wanted to have a Mermaid party. We decided to expand the theme a bit, to add fish, under the sea creatures, and pirates (boys would be invited as well). This was a large party we had just started school and decided to invite everyone from her class, as well as her neighborhood playmates. We had 20 children.  

INVITATIONS:  We ordered card stock invitations that we printed on our own printer. The invitations were the Under the Sea design available from www.colorsbydesign.com. If you are looking for cardstock invitations and fill in the blank lots of designs, they are a great source!! 

DECORATIONS: Blue, Pink, Purple, Teal streamers and balloons. Also cut out fish shapes decorated in advance by the birthday girl which were hung on the outside walls of the house in the backyard. We purchased a bubble machine from Oriental Trading so the back yard was filled with bubbles throughout the party, and played Beach Boys, etc. music.  

CRAFT: For something to do for arriving guests, I had cut out for each child an Octopus shape (minus head in other words I cut out a shape with eight legs coming off of it. The children decorated the legs with round self-stick paper hole reinforcements. After they were finished we stuck a small purple balloon thru a slot in the center to be the head (I had already drawn a happy face on each of the balloons). If needed a second craft activity was making a puffy fish. Each child would receive a fish shape made out of two sheets of manila paper that were stapled together with staples almost all the way around. The kids could color each side of it and then stuff tissue paper inside and staple up to close.   

COSTUMES: I also provided the kids with costumes they could wear during the party. The choices were pirates or mermaids. Pirates Paper Pirate Hat (U.S. Toy), Red sash to go around the waist (piece of broadcloth cut in a 5 strip, cut in fringe on each end), and face paint to draw on moustache, beard stubble, etc. Mermaids Flower for hair (went to $1 store and bought stems with several silk flowers on it, cut off the flowers and hot glued them to a barrette one for each girl), plastic lei necklace and bracelet, and roll-on body glitter (Bath & Body Works). I had enough leis and pirate gear for each child so everyone could dress up as they wished.  

FOOD/PARTY WARE: I placed out munchies of goldfish crackers and peanut butter/jelly sandwiches (cut out in fish shape with cookie cutter) during the party. They were placed on a dark blue disposable table cloth. I sat out dark blue plates for these and also had in a treasure chest (Oriental Trading) the napkins plus utensils. We served the adults their cake on these same dark blue plates/napkins, but for the kids had Jewel the Mermaid plates and napkins (Birthday Express).  We didn’t set out the Mermaid plates/napkins on the table so they wouldn’t get used before we wanted them to be used! We put the cake on this table as well and placed tropical items, a prismatic centerpiece bought at the party store, pirate booty and coins as well as tropical fruit (pineapple, coconut, etc.) on the table for decoration. We served juice pouches to the kids and had a cooler full of water bottles for the adults.  

GAMES: We had available a bouncy house and of course the swingset in the backyard, gold coins in the sandbox, and then for our actual games we divided the kids who wanted to play into two groups  one played Pin the Flower in the Mermaid’s hair (drawn on poster board, flowers cut out of construction paper) while the other group played Bean Bag Toss into a Fish’s Mouth (drawn on heavy poster board and taped to the front of a large open cardboard box). The two groups switched games after everyone had a turn.

Next we played Dive Under the Sea (gather everyone around a blue sheet and have plenty of bean bag fishes, stuffed animal sea creatures, etc. whatever you choose under the sheet. I made fishes out of fabric, stuffed with tissue paper. I don’t sew, so I used fabric glue and they held together great. We decorated them with glitter glue. To play, everyone stood, grabbed hold and shook the sheet like a parachute - while I said Under the Sea Under the Sea _______ and _____ dive under the sea. I said two names at a time because there were so many kids. They would go under, grab a sea creature, and then toss it onto the top of the sheet. It was fun to watch the fish get tossed around.)

Last we played Sea Monster Sea Monster Are you Hungry. (All the kids got on one side of the yard, my husband was the sea monster the kids would yell sea monster, sea monster are you hungry? and my husband would say no, come closer, they would take a few steps closer, and this would go on and on until he would say yes at which point he would chase them and try to catch others to become sea monsters with him. The kids loved all the games and wanted to play all of them again and again. After games we had cake.  

CAKE: We had a rectangular sheet cake, the had blue icing on the top for water. On the top left corner we had a mound or hill made out of cake, frosted in chocolate, which was a rock, and sitting on top was an inexpensive Barbie type doll with flowing red hair (found at Walmart, a little smaller that Barbie a Kelly size doll would work great too). We removed the dolls clothes and used icing to make a bikini top and to cover her legs in green icing to look like a Mermaid tail. In the top right hand corner placed a rectangle of cake on top, again in chocolate icing, and this was the pirate ship. Decorated it with pretzel sticks to make a mast, and drew a small pirate flag on paper to attach to a pretzel. 

PRESENTS: I made a birthday throne which was a child sized chair wrapped everywhere in green tulle (with sparkles on it) and tied in place with green sparkly ribbon from our craft box. As each present was opened it was immediately handed off to an adult helper who took it inside. This kept the presents in-tack in their packages, and cards with them. An adult kept a list of who gave what for our thank you notes. 

PINATA: Mermaid Pinata (Werehavingaparty.com).  Pinata was stuffed with plastic gold coins, candy, bead necklaces and small plastic sea creatures (U.S. Toy). To collect the loot we passed out paper sacks decorated with fish (Oriental Trading).  

FAVORS: Sand bucket filled with a bubble necklace, aquarium theme stickers, pirate patch and ring pop (all from Oriental Trading or U.S. Toy). 

PARTY SCHEDULE: Party Schedule: 1:00 Bounce House, Craft, Coins in Sand, Swing set, Dressup in costumes 1:40 Games 2:00 Cake 2:10 open presents 2:20 pinata 2:30 pass out favors and say goodbye to guests 2:35 start planning for next year!

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