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! 

Mermaid Tail Pseudo-Tutorial

DISCLAIMER: I say this is a "pseudo-tutorial", because I don't want to claim if you follow my directions step by step it will end up a certain way!  I am definitely NOT a seamstress, and when I do sew, I would say that I am an "interpretive-sewer" (kinda like interpretive dance??!)  That being said, I saw the idea for a mermaid beach towel, and thought, "I could make that!", and I did, for about $5 a towel!  Not bad!

 So, first off, I went to WalMart, 

and found towels at $5 a shot in the colours I wanted (purple and turquoise), one towel per child (I needed 6: so 3 purple, 3 turquoise).  

I chopped the bottom third off each towel, 

and then I made a fin template using tissue paper.  

I folded the tissue paper in half, drew half a tail freehand, cut it, opened it up and voila!  A perfectly symmetrical fin!  

I pinned it to a the bottom third of the towel that I had cut off, and cut around it, leaving a 1/4 to 1/2 inch for the seam allowance (a trick I learned in pattern making from the UVic Theatre Costume department!).

 Then, as I am not much of a seamstress (as mentioned above), I waited to do the actual sewing until I was at my in-law's house in March, because my mom in law is a fabulous seamstress, and often takes my crazy ideas and figures out how to make them work!  We serged the fins (an easy job for me!), and then she and my sister in law figured out a way to use crochet string (not yarn) to gather the unfinished edge of the top two-thirds of the towels in order to sew them to the fins.  Are you with me still??

 Here's the finished product!  

After the visit, I took the finished towels home and attached velcro to the top of each tail so the girls could wear them!

 Here's my husband's mom and sister hard at work on my crazy scheme...

And here's the finished product, modeled by the birthday girl.  

The towels were a huge hit at the party, and a great 

take-home gift instead of a goody bag!  

It was super cute seeing them all wearing their towels 

while they played barbies at the party.

Top Ten Ideas for a Mermaid Party

 With Aria's 6th birthday coming up next month I've already started planning some ideas out for how to throw a spectacular MERMAID BIRTHDAY PARTY.  Here are the top ten ideas from my Pinterest board.

1. Seashell Invitations

Source: sillyeaglebooks.com via Carmen Kinniburgh on Pinterest

 How fun are these?  Aria loves shells, and the invitation instantly becomes a keepsake when its not a piece of paper!

2. Balloon Decor

 

Source: karaspartyideas.com via Carmen Kinniburgh on Pinterest

Balloons and nets and some streamers hanging from the ceiling will really make the room feel as though we're underwater.

3.  Rock Candy

 

Source: maddycakesmuse.blogspot.com via Carmen Kinniburgh on Pinterest

There's all sorts of recipes out there about how to make your own rock candy.  I think it'll be a fun science experiment to do with my kids several weeks before the party, and doesn't it look like coral?

4.  "Sushi" Sandwiches

 

Source: karaspartyideas.com via Carmen Kinniburgh on Pinterest

I love sushi, but I don't think that I could get the girls to eat it!  This is a super fun alternative, and with all the peanut allergies out there, I think its wise to steer away from the classic PB&J.

5. Orange Pepper Octo-dip

 

Source: familyfun.go.com via Carmen Kinniburgh on Pinterest

How ridiculously cute is this?  And easy!  I love food that adds to the theme!

6.  Mermaid Craft

 

Source: familyfun.go.com via Carmen Kinniburgh on Pinterest

This is a great simple craft that I know any 5 or 6 year old girl would love to make.  I think I'll attach the hair ahead of time, but let the girls decorate their mermaids however they'd like to.

7.  Mermaid Tail Towels

 

Source: thehobbymommy.com via Carmen Kinniburgh on Pinterest

So, on Amazon these towels are around $60!  I'm thinking I can make them for WAY less, and I am NOT a seamstress.  I like to think of myself as an interpretive sewer... no patterns, just making it up as I go along!  My thought is that these will be the party favours that the girls can take home and then use all summer!

8.  Ombre Ocean Cake

 

Source: blog.catchmyparty.com via Carmen Kinniburgh on Pinterest

In my head, this is what Aria's cake will look like, but I know there's no way I can pull it off.  I might try to go for the ombre look on the inside though, with the different layers and try for something simpler to decorate...

9.  Wafer Chocolate for Easy Cake Decorating

 

Source: marthastewartweddings.com via Carmen Kinniburgh on Pinterest

Something simpler like this.  Still beautiful, but layering chocolate wafers I can definitely do.  And the Bulk Barn in town has every shade of wafer under the sun!

10.  Octopus Cake or Marshmallow Pops

 

Source: blog.amyatlas.com via Carmen Kinniburgh on Pinterest

In October I made my first attempt at cake pops for Roscoe's Robot Party.  My husband had much more finesse when it came to dipping them in chocolate.  They were super yummy, and a LOT OF WORK!  Simple octopuses I might be able to handle though...