Mermaid Party -5yr- The Fishing Game

Mermaid party  My daughter loves all things mermaid so we decided to have a mermaid party for her 5th birthday. We have lots of boys on our invite list so decided to make it a mermaid/pirate treasure hunt party. We used several ideas from this site and incorporated many of our own to have a party fit for a mermaid princess! 

INVITE: The tall half fold invite read "Swim or Sail for Mermaid Island. Pirates of have buried some great human stuff off the shore of Mermaid Island. Help us discover the treasure in time for Kate's Fifth Birthday. Set sail (date) be sure to dock by 10 am, dock closes at 12:00. Mermaid Island is the second island on the left (street address) Send a message by bottle or phone if you can't come exploring." My daughter helped with the invitation so it took a couple days for us to put it all together, but broken into small time segments she was able to help with the whole thing. We choose two different shades of blue card stock and on the darker we printed the "swim or sail" line and cut waves across the top about a third of the way down.

On the inside we printed the party invitation and edited it to fit beneath the waves. On the lighter card stock we cut it in half and glued it to the dark non printed side of the invitation. We colored pics of Ariel and had her waving over the waves of the invite and attached ocean stickers below the "water". The bottom of the invite we mixed yellow glitter glue, water, and Elmers and painted sand. We lightly dusted the glitter glue with real sand. (important to the young mermaid in our house)

ENTRANCE: We had two bubble machines at our front door (ebay $15) and I hung the dollar store plastic tablecovers across the porch entrance (blue, lt. blue and green) and I cut them into strips so they had to push their way through the waves into the foamy bubbles. (important for later game) After the guests came through the foam, we outfited them as pirates or mermaids. Pirates with a sash and face painting. Mermaids with felt shell tops, body glitter, and flowers for their hair. The mermaid fins were again the plastic green tablecovers cut into "straight miniskirts" and I sewed a ribbon across the top of so it would be easy to tie on/off.

OPENING ACTIVITY: I had a bulletin board sheet of blue paper taped to the kitchen table and told the kids to draw ocean scenes on it while everyone arrived, later it served as a table cloth with easy clean up.

ACTIVITIES: When everyone arrived we hit the steel drum music and started our treasure hunt. The hunt had rhyming clues with each party game that ultimately led the guests to the buried treasure(their goodies bags in a tin foil covered box decorated to look like a chest) If you want the clues email me (smerguson@earthlink.net) and I'll try to send them to you. Each clue was in the shape of a seashell and in a specially decorated envelope the birthday mermaid opened.

Game 1: Under the sea band. The clue said they had to play music to find out where to go next. So I assembled all the in house instruments I could find (you could make some shakers or homemade drums as a craft too) to assemble under water band. Then played "under the sea" and let the kids jam.

Game 2: We played parachute games where the guests pretended to run under the parachute(or sheet) before the "water" crashed them down. Then they relaxed on their backs as the adults brought the parachute over them.

Game 3: Pin a flower in the mermaid hair, to "dry off"

Game 4: Fishing game. I taped blue bulletin board paper in a doorway and hid an adult on the other side and decorated the paper with waves and ocean animals. The guests took turns casting their fishing line over the paper and reeling in some object. The clue had told them to try to reel in the treasure map. Each time it was a different object for each guest- boot, fish , shark, seaweed, etc. it kept them guessing what was next. I cut the objects out of construction paper and my helper just paper clipped them to the fishing line. The birthday mermaid pulled in the treasure map. The last clue told them to go back to through the foamy bubbles to find the treasure. (I had a helper put the on a chair after all the guests swam past the foamy bubbles) 

FOOD: I did the usual ocean themed snacks but added deviled egg boats. Deviled eggs with a toothpick and an American cheese sail… different.

GOODY BAGS: The treasure chest held their goody bags, which I bought from oriental trading. They had a mermaid tote already assembled and I made pirate bags for the boys. Way fun party,and pretty inexpensive. My biggest cost was were the totes and the bubble machine.