Little Mermaid Party - Aria Turns 6!

Yes, this post is a little slow in coming!  The party was way back in April, but... better late than never!  Right?  So, apparently April is a busy birthday month for Aria and her friends!  It was a challenge finding a day that worked for everyone, and I think most weekends in April had a party scheduled!  We ended up combining Aria's party with one of her closest friends, Stella, as their birthdays are only a week apart, and I'm SOOO glad we did!  It was such fun!

Stella's mom and I were talking one day, and we quickly realized we should just combine the parties, as both girls wanted a mermaid party, 

both girls had the same friends they wanted to come, 

and neither of us moms thought the friends should bring gifts!  

So instead we had a loonie and twonie party, where the birthday girls had little treasure chests that their friends filled with money!  Aria needed a new bike this year, so her money went towards that purchase.

 

 I had been planning Aria's party for several months already, as I really enjoy the creative end of decorating and planning towards a good theme!  

So I took care of hosting, decorating and some food, and Stella's mom made a super fun cake!

 There are so many great ideas out there for doing a mermaid party, 

and the trouble is focusing in on only a couple ideas.  

We decided to go with a turquoise, purple and green colour scheme, 

and then started finding decor that fit in with that!  

Aria and I had fun shopping for jewels and stones and shells at the dollar store to decorate the table.  And then Superstore had plastic dishes for outdoors this spring in a great turquoise, and for super cheap!

 I've decided that as cute as cake-pops are, 

dipped marshmallows are WAAAAY easier, 

and just as big of a hit with the kids!  

So we used some purple dipping chocolate and the purple sprinkles 

(left over from last year's Tangled Party) for those!

 The mermaid tail towels were an awesome take-home/thank you gift for the guests, and doubled as chair decor!

 I found this fish net at the dollar store and filled it with balloons for an under the sea theme in the living room.  

The starfish were made with sandpaper (again, courtesy of the dollar store), and I made the tissue paper flowers - super easy!  

Just use about 8 sheets of tissue paper, 

accordion fold it, 

use a twist-tie in the middle to hold the folds together, 

shape the two ends (I rounded them off, or cut a a triangle), 

and then fan them out.

  

 My hubby helped out by making these super cute "sushi" sandwiches.  He spread cream cheese on slices of bread, and then put sliced cucumber, cheese, and ham in them, rolled them up and cut them into rolls.

 Here's our new pet fish that acted as a centrepiece on the party table!

 Isn't that cake so cute?!  

The birthday girls got to keep the mermaid dolls that were on top.  

I made the ruffled streamers the night before.  Again, super easy!  

Double up the streamers, and then force them into the sewing machine, allowing them to bunch as you sew to get that ruffled look.  

And then cut them to the length you want them.  

The more imperfect the better!

 The birthday girls!

 I ended up not planning much for party activities, which turned out to be a good thing, as the girls were happy to play barbies for the whole party!  I think thy really enjoyed just being together, without the school agenda to contend with!  We did play musical chairs to the Little Mermaid soundtrack, which progressed into a full-on Mermaid dance party!

Our six year old!  Where has the time gone!  

And now starting into grade one in less than a month.  

I can hardly believe it!