It seems that the mermaid theme is a popular one amongst five year old girls! With Immy’s birthday falling in the height of summer on this side of the world, I thought her chosen theme of mermaids would work well from a water play activity perspective – providing lots of fun to keep the kids cool whilst also wearing them out 😉
As I shared in Friday’s post, the party planning got a little out of control thanks to the visually inspiring smorgasboard of Pinterest and probably the most time consuming element of preparation was the sewing of eleven mermaid (and merman) tails from bath towels, after all what is a mermaid party without tails??? As the guests arrived they were invited to choose a tail which they were welcome to take home to keep.
When it came to the water based activities, the star of the show was the bouncy castle water slide…
We also included a paddle pool with water play toys and a clam shell with sea animal figurines.
The trampoline, cubby house and sandpit were also put to good use, a benefit of partying at home.
If they got tired of splashing about, the mermaids were welcome to visit the nail painting salon at their leisure,
or to get munching at the lolly and cereal threading station. A game of pass the parcel rounded out the activities for the afternoon.
The swim up buffet was watched over by Sally the shark (the party food will be featured in a follow up post soon).
And Ariel made a star appearance thanks to a very talented kindy Mum (the inspiration for which was found on Instagram thanks to Olivia’s Kitchen – for those based in Adelaide, be sure to check out Olivia’s marvellous cake creations).
Our mermaid and merman guests each swam home with a beach bucket and spade and a few party trinkets (lollipop, a few lollies, curly straw and balloon), labelled with a spray painted mussel shell that I wrote on with permanent marker pen.
And just like that, weeks of planning and preparation were over in the blink of an eye as our big girl celebrated turning five!
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Christie Burnett is a teacher, presenter, writer and the mother of two. She created Childhood 101 as a place for teachers and parents to access engaging, high quality learning ideas.
What a fantastic party. You really excelled yourself this time Christie. What fun the kids had and a great day for Immy to remember her 5th birthday celebrations.
Immy had a great time 🙂
Wow, that ll looks great. With three girls all with winter birthdays I’m not sure I’ll be able to use the mermaid theme, but Miss 6 is asking for an ‘early’ birthday party this year so as to use her water slip slide in the back yard, so you never know! Or maybe we can think up another excuse for a party. (Did you zig zag the edges of the towel tails? Is towelling the best option for material?)
It was lots of fun, Suzy. I am not sure if towelling is the best option (amateur seamstress here!) but I managed to pick up some cheap bath towels that I thought would work well (I got two tails out of each towel). I did zig zag the edges (no overlocker here) and Immy’s is holding up well.
Great party, Christie! Bella had a great time (and I had fun too 🙂 )
Thank you for your help, Jess, I am so glad Bella had fun 🙂
Oh, I love it!
I’m going to pin your fantastic spread of Mer-people food. We are on the opposite side of the globe, so a theme like this would have to wait ’til July or August. We do have a birthday that lurks in those months – this is great inspiration!
It was a lot of fun, Tara 🙂 Thank you for stopping by.
Gorgeous Christie! I LOVE parties. I am pinning this to my board. What a lucky little girl you have x
Immy had a great time, Anna. Thank you so much for pinning 🙂
This is adorable although I have to know, how did you make the blue drink and what flavour is it?
It’s blue jelly, Sonia 🙂
Hi! I am throwing a mermaid party for my daughter in a few weeks and would love to know more about the food! I can’t seem to find the follow up post 🙁 Are those star shaped pizzas? If so, how did you do them? Also, how did you do the watermelon shark? LOVE your ideas!
Sweet party! Love the idea of buckets and shovels for favors. The spray painted shell is a nice touch.
I would LOVE to know what your party foods were. I’m currently planning my daughters “under the sea” themed party for May.
Great Party Ideas! Thank you