Celebrating birthdays!

Birthdays seem to last a few weeks at our house. We get to celebrate every time a package comes in the mail from family and gearing up for that awesome birthday party. Liz finally was able to open that package from Nana, and couldn't wait!  Roller Skates. She's been wanting a pair of Skates for a year or so. Her last birthday party was at the roller rink in town and that got her hooked.

The elementary school that my kids attend is great. They have some really fun extra curricular activity and events for families. And they are great at recognizing each students birthday. The have their names read in the morning announcements, visit with the principle to receive some small gifts- pencil, erasers, school cups, etc., and get to eat lunch with two guest.  A few days before their birthday, they are given a  free happy meal coupon too. Elizabeth asked Scott and I to come have lunch with her. And her birthday happen to fall on a day that Scott only had one class early that morning and he was able to take a little bit of a break and have lunch with us. She was so excited to have him there. I should have taken a picture of the two of them. We picked up MCDonald on our way and had a fun time hanging out with her and a few friends. We even were able to see Joce at her lunch time too.

Under the Sea Birthday Party

Saturday was the big day! Elizabeth had 6 friends from school come over for her party. The girls were wonderful and lots of fun. And they were not as crazy as I expected them to be and that was a nice surprise. I had a friend from church volunteer to come over and give me a hand with the party.  

As the girls came in, I had the mermaid makeover all set out and ready for them to start primping. I found a wonderful ocean, meditation music and slideshow that was playing on the TV for added back ground noise. It was very soothing and relaxing to hear and see stunning  scene of ocean water, beaches, and sea life. Maybe that attributed to their not being so crazy!

We painted their nails, used hair chalk and gave them some fun color strips. We also used some shimmery, pastel eye shadow to top it off. They all looked great and felt like mermaids!

I love this mermaid frame. It's my second favorite piece of decor, after the seahorse and starfish mobile that is hanging in the center of the living room. I even kept my pink and white flower wreath because they reminded me sea anemones.

After the mermaid makeover we headed to the living room where we played a few games. They played Pin the Pearl and Musical Pearl.

When we finished some games we headed back to the dining room for lunch  at the Seahorse Cafe. The lunch menu: Submarine Sandwiches, Fish & Chips (potato chips and goldfish crackers) coral salad (fruit) Squid ink (chocolate sauce) and blue ocean punch. These mermaids where not shy and piled their plates up high! They were hungry.

During lunch we turned on Barbie in a Mermaid Tale. They loved watching that and singing a long with the songs. Some sat in the living room and others stayed in the dining room.

Once they finished chowing down we had one more game and craft. I set up a fishing station where they used a toy fishing rod to fish for their bag of pearls to make  a pearl and charm bracelet. once everyone had their kits, we turned the movie back on and they sat down and strung their bracelets together. Stringing  the beads kept them busy  for a while.

Elizabeth opened her presents and received some fun toys from her friends. Webkinz cat, baby Furby, make-up kit, $10. and a $20 gift card to Toys R Us. I think she wants to buy the big Furby and have both toys play and talk to each other. But she needs $20 more. I guess we will have to find some chores for her to earn the rest of what she needs.

Time for Cake and Ice Cream!    Ummm, We ate too much. We don't have room for cake and ice cream. 

The Little Mermaid- not the cake I wanted, but it's the only sea themed cake they had in stock at Wal-Mart. In their cake book of ideas, they had an awesome Finding Nemo cake kit, but they were out. It would have been perfect for the theme.   And who was the  genius to put Happy Birthday Liz on the edge of the cake, where it obviously got smeared, instead of on top of the cake?  

I cut the cake into really small pieces and  served a little lump of ice cream. we didn't even eat half of the cake. We were eating left over cake for a week. And I still ended up throwing some of it out. Next time, Smaller Cake.

For a thank you gift, I put together an Edible Aquruim- Kit included: Fish-Goldfish dessert crackers, Fish Food- gummy worms and gummy fish. Blue water- Blue Koolaid pouch.  They were a big hit. 

2 hours was not quite long enough. There were a few games and activities that we didn't get to because of time. One of the things I wanted to do with the girls was a mermaid photo booth. I made these props, but  they didn't get to use them during the party. While waiting for parents to pick up girls, a few of them were goofing around with them. I was able to get a few pictures of one of the girls.

Because shells can go just about anywhere, right?!

It was a really fun birthday party and so much work. But worth it. And I think we will keep up most of the decorations for a few days because it took so much work to put it all up. Plus it's Easter colors. Works for me. Now I need to figure out what I am going to do with all this stuff. Maybe someone will want to buy it?!

Happy Birthday Liz!!

Birthday Party Preparation

Elizabeth decided  on an "Under the Sea" theme for her birthday party. There were not very many "Under the Sea" themes as there were Mermaid themes, so it became a little more mermaid theme in the end.  And many of the under the sea themes were geared towards boys so I had to really come up with my own ideas. Most of the mermaid themes were either very lavish and ornate, for very little girl,,or based on Disney's The Little Mermaid movie. It was hard to find ideas for older girls. But it turned out wonderful and Elizabeth and her friends had a great time. 

Because it was Under the sea, we really had to decorate  with under water things to give the feeling of being underwater. 

I found a Cricut cartridge mermaid shape that I really loved, so I enlarged it, traced it on large paper, and painted it in the colors we were using.

Blue, pink and white

After painting it and letting it dry, I modge podged the pink areas and sprinkled it with a pink and clear glitter. I cut her out and placed her on a teal background and put her in my large white frame. It turned out better than I expected. 

 

We looked all over for "under the sea" type of games and activities at the party stores, but there was nothing to be found. That meant I have to create my own.  I was still in a painting mood and decided I would attempt making a giant clam shell to play Pin the pearl.  

I'm  not too excited how it turned out, but it worked. After a while of painting, it just looked like a giant shell toilet seat. I wanted to abandon it several time, but kept going in hopes it would look better when I was finished.  After all was said and done it actually looks more like a shell with a pearl than a toilet seat so we used it. It's definitely not my best work.

 I found a really cute shell birthday banner on etsy that went exactly with our theme.  I decided to make my own just like it. I found a shell shape that I really liked and cut out a ton of pink and blue shaped shells, the pink slightly smaller than the blue. Then I used my crucit machine to cut letter and glued them on the pink shells. I really like using my sewing machine to sew together card stock shapes to make banners and garlands. It's  quick, easy and cheap! I sewed the blue shells together and then glued the pink over the sewing to hide the lines and makes them look more like they are floating. I am very happy with how it turned out. Although the picture at the bottom does not look as great as it does in person.

 Here is another mermaid picture I painted. To have a little more of a grown up feel, we  planned to have a mermaid makeover. I think I will try to re-do this after we use  it. I think  I will cut out the shape  and  mount it on a cute pink patterned piece of fabric and frame it in white. It would look better.

 This was a fun  12 x 12in. sign to make, but I was really wanting it to be in a long rectangle frame with the   "beach" letters going down vertically.  But I didn't have any more rectangle frames left.

We  planned an "under the sea" lunch and I thought it would be fun to name our eating area the 

Seahorse Cafe.

I dragged the kids down to the beach on a cold day to go collect shells, driftwood, and big bucket of sand. We didn't find any shells, but lucky for me I had a friend who had a great collection that we were able to use. We filled  4 large vases, 4 small mason jars and two candlestick holders with sand. Arranged some of the shells and driftwood. I found a really cool blogger who makes her own edible beach glass and whipped up a batch to add to our sand and shells. I tinted  them green and added peppermint.  It looked awesome, but there was no way I was going to  let the girls eat these sharp shards of sugar. And the mint was a little too strong.

As I searched through all the pintrest ideas, I found this amazing seahorse and starfish mobile from Pottery Barn Kids. Here's the link to see what the inspirational piece looks like. 

Wish I could afford to make an exact replica!!! http://www.potterybarnkids.com/products/3274032/

This is my low budget spin on the mobile.  It's really awesome and looks very nice in the center of the room. It took for ever to trace and cut these few (16) silhouettes. It seemed like this took me quite a long time to piece all together and find just the perfect length, lightweight, driftwood  stick. Which I think I like  better than their brass ring. It  translates the theme of a beach or ocean better to me.

We still had streamers to put up in the windows, these blue twirly streamers that were suppose to make it appear as  though you were under water, and a big  dolphin and sea turtle back drop to hang up. There was so much decorated  and yet it seemed like we could have still done more. Elizabeth was happy with it and I loved how it turned out too!