Well, Serenity's birthday had a perfectly wonderful start! When she went outside to see the party for the first time she whispered to me "This is the best party I could possibly have!" I love her enthusiasm and sweetness. I completely loved designing the party, even if I woke up at 3am and couldn't go back to sleep until I went downstairs and finished my party printables. =) **Free party planning consultations for anybody that came to read the birthday post! Party planning is so much fun! Love you guys!
Serenity and Donovan immediately started begging to dig into the new sand we got for the treasure hunt, but they had to wait for the guests to arrive! I buried gems, shells, and pearl necklaces in the sandboxes for the little mermaids to find! Along with a big jar of glitter to make the sand fancy. I think everyone loved this, even the big kids. I'm glad I thought to have baggies and labels so everyone took home their treasures. Usually I have so many goodies that get forgotten so I went label crazy this time!
As people arrived this year they got to dress up as mermaids! The kids got tails I made with pretty fabric! The fabric is very glittery, so our house has been purple all month. Serenity and Donovan love their tails. I made Serenity's first to make sure the design worked, and the entire rest of that day Donovan asked where his was so I had to get busy and finish a second one! I also made mermaid wands with starfish on top. I had the felt and beads for that on hand so it was a free project!
We had the water blob again, and it was a big hit with the kids even though it sprung a leak very early this year. I think I needed more duct tape! This time I filled it with foam shapes, glitter and food coloring. Mrs. McBride suggested that at our Bubble Party last year. =) The mermaids splashed and rolled around on that. It was giggly fun!
Everyone got to decorate a little mermaid treasure chest. The lesson learned there was that glitter glue is immensely popular!
I sewed a canopy out of beautiful blue organza and ribbons that I got at my favorite fabric store in San Jose. The kids have enjoyed playing with this for a couple of weeks, but everyone was too busy running around to really play with it at the party. The Mermaid Mansion sure looked cute though =) It will probably hang in Serenity's room as a little reading/snuggling nook.
The Mermaid Splash was so much fun! I'm so glad Serenity likes sprinklers at last! It kept the kids cool and happy while they were outside! Dad did such a good job building it. I'm kind of proud of how it was decorated. I used extra ribbon wands from her rainbow third birthday, and leftover sponge balls from Donovan's ball and bath party last year!
Dad also designed and built an awesome mermaid shell chair! It is so pretty and made a perfect photo opportunity for our mermaids!
Jennifer designed and made most of the food, and it was amazing! Serenity told me that she wanted mermaid food, and Jen came up with a complete list of delicious and adorable food for mermaids! She made octopuses with marshmallows and candy melts, clams with pearls out of Madelines and yogurt raisins, dolphin muffins, and starfish-shaped watermelon. We also had seaweed (grapes on skewers), crab legs (carrot sticks and tomatoes on skewers), sea water (sprite and blue gatorade), shark's teeth (cheese cut into triangles) and fish. We ordered blue sea turtles from the donut shop, which made both of my children extremely happy. I got too many, so we sent one home with each child. So maybe I got just enough =) Serenity also told us that she needed a cake that was blue inside and out. Jennifer made this amazing cake! Amazing and delicious. I'm lucky less than a quarter of it is left. Starfish really likes mermaid cake. =)
Fishing was a lot of fun again! Everyone is starting to get pretty good at it, even Donovan managed to hook his puzzle all by himself! I had labeled grocery sacks with everyone's names and the things that they should collect during the party, so hopefully everyone made it home with all their treasures!
After cake and fishing we opened presents. Serenity got so many wonderful things! She's been working her way through them all afternoon and her enthusiasm hasn't waned a bit! She's a lucky lucky girl. And I'm a lucky Mama. She thanked me for an awesome party and said I was the best Mama she could possibly have. Lucky me =)
