Little Mermaid Party - Sand Dough Sand Castles

Little Mermaid Under the Sea Water Party 

Invitations: Outside~ Decorate with ocean clip art, sponge paint of sea stars or fish shapes. Swim on over to "name" Under the Sea Birthday Party Inside~ Our sea castle address: Day: Time: RSVP Bring your swimsuit and a towel  No pool?  Have a Boardwalk Party! Make a tattoo stand, a hotdog stand, ice-cream stand, cotton candy stand and a popcorn stand. Invite the guests to come in their swimsuits and bring a towel to sit on. 

Decorations: From colored poster board cut out 8-10" fish and sea horses.  Decorate them with glitter, suspend or use to decorate walls, tables etc.  Decorate a table with a "fish net" over a bright table cloth, on top place plastic sand castles or castles made from sand dough, sea shells, silver and gold bead strands.  Sprinkle with tropical confetti.  Color theme could be yellow, blue and green.  Serve punch with plastic "drink chills" in the shape of sea horses etc.  Picture poster board of the little mermaid.  Get pictures of the Little Mermaid on line.  Print the pictures out in color. Cut the extra paper away from the pictures. After preparing the pictures cut blue colored paper into designs so that the designs are a little bigger then the pictures.   Paste the blue paper onto poster board first. The pictures will go on over top of the blue designs.  Decorate the rest of the poster board with fish or starfish.   After the party, this beautiful board that can be hung up in the child' s room. - by a reader  Make a lifeguard stand for the birthday child to open their presents upon.  Play beach music  See the Luau theme for more decorating ideas. 

Cake and Food: Cake: Pool cake~  A rectangular sheet cake.  Frost the sides white and 1/2 along the inside edge.  The remaining top should be blue.  Add a shaved down grahams cracker for a diving board.  Blue and green smarties lined up on edge in the center for floats.  Gummy life savers for inner-tubes.  Decorate the side of the cake with peach gummy rings, look like life rings.  Polly Pocket size people also make good decoration.  Cake decorated with Ariel- regular cake rectangle cake...iced part in blue icing, for the ocean, the other side in white, with shaved graham crackers for the sand,  decorate with palm tree toothpicks and a figure of Ariel.  Cupcakes or brownies in Little Mermaid liners  Beach Ball cake using a Pampered Chef 2 Qt bowl  Serve: Fish shaped Rice Krispie treats Clear cups with blue Jell-o and gummy octopus or fish candies Goldfish crackers 

Goodie Bags: Fill with mermaid stickers, small sand filled sea animal, shark fruit bites, bubbles, edible candy leis made with wrapped candy and ribbon.   Beach balls. 

Games and Activities:  Sand Castles~ (This kind will last) Sand Dough:  4 Cups Sand  + 2 Cups Cornstarch  + 1 tbl & 1 tsp Cream of Tartar  + Cups Hot Water.   Mix sand, cornstarch and cream of tarter into large saucepan.  Stir in hot water and cook over medium heat until stiff and water is absorbed.  Cool Kids can form castles with their hands or used small sand molds.  It may be best to coat molds with a vegetable spray first for easy removal. 

Crossing the river:   String two ropes the length of the pool.   Divide people into teams.  Need two "rafts" (something they can float on, preferably keeping somewhat dry, but could be unstable). Team members are split onto each side of the pool, near the rope. The first person up must climb onto the raft, pull the raft to the other side using the rope, then climb off.  Continue with the others.  The winning team finishes first OR is the one with the team members that are least wet.  Dog Race:  (for youngsters that can swim the dog paddle) Line up the kids on the edge of the pool.  On go they jump in and all dog paddle to the other side, get out and bark 3 times.  First one to finish wins. 

Treasure Dive: Line up everyone on the side of the pool and toss in "treasure."  See who can bring back the most.  Make poster board crowns: Trim with glitter.  Let the kids decorate them with stamps, markers, stickers. 

Dance: The Limbo and the Conga to Little Mermaid music or other  Catch the Fish: Need:  3" fish made from tissue paper, Stir stick straws, clear plastic cups. Place the fish on a table top.  Let the children blow at the fish, through the straws and try to catch them with their cups.  See who can catch the most in 2 minutes. 

Memory Treasure Hunt: Take turns finishing this sentence:  "I found a sunken ship beneath the ocean waves, and I collected a ________."  The others must say what the others found then add to the list.