Little Mermaid Luau -3yr- Mermaid Purse Favors

For my daughter Hannah's 3rd birthday party we had a combination Little Mermaid/Luau party. We called it a Little Mermaid Under the Sea Luau party". The two themes went really well together.

I sent out Invitations bought from Oriental Trading Inc. They were plastic bottles kind of like a message in a bottle with a luau theme. These little bottle invitations can actually be sent through the mail for about a $1.20 or so or you can hand deliver them if you want to it to be more "special" or if you are trying to keep costs down. I chose to send mine out because I wanted people to get them in the mail and be suprized. I used the bottle sand shells and a few extras that came with the invites along with Little Mermaid stickers to make the bottle go along with the Little Mermaid theme. The actual invitation I used was printed off of my computer.It was yellow and blue (like flounder) and it had a picture of Ariel and Flounder looking up toward the water's surface. It read: "If this message in a bottle has found it's way to you then come join in the fun with us there will be games and prizes too. We'll celebrate the Birthday of a little girl who's three and what better way to celebrate than with Ariel under the Sea. When we find we are too tired to swim and we can't hold our breath anymore we can come up out of the water and have a Luau right on the shore." then I had listed the party info such as date time and place. I also included that there would be a prize for the best costumes (adult and child) 

LOCATION/DECORATIONS: We had the party in our yard. It was a September party but we  were lucky enough to have unseasonably warm weather. We rented a 20x20 party tent from a local party rental store. For DecorationsI used Luau decorations as well as Little Mermaid Decorations. I strung white lights all the way around the top of the tent and I used brightly colored paper lanterns. I put out some large Little Mermaid cutouts and a Little Mermaid Pinata I also hung lots of paper and plastic cut-out fish to keep with the under the sea theme.

On the tables I used sand and shells in the center as centerpieces. I had paper flowers hung and strands of seashells hung up as well. I had two large coolers that were inflatable tubs with palm trees sticking out of it. We filled them up with ice and drinks and placed them at opposite ends of the tent. They looked very festiveand served a purpose. Also I had to keep in mind that there were a lot of boys invited to the party as well so I tried to include them on  the decorations So I made a large pirate ship out of a cardboard box and posterboard that I put out in the front  yard. I balled up two colors of blue streamers and a few white streamers and placed them around the base of the boat to make it look like the ship was on the water. I also made use of a package of pirate balloons that I had blown up. I put pirate balloons going down the side of my yard every couple feet on the fence. This made it a little more "boy friendly". 

I also bought 8 giant balloons that were about 3ft tall or bigger these were all fish dolphins etc. I tied them around the back porch. As a welcoming decoration I also made a giant Ursula the sea witch out of posterboards that I had taped together. I used about 6 pieces of poster board taped together to make her. I placed her at the edge of my front yard welcoming everyone into the party. Behind her on a small tv tray I put out a bubble machine that I bought for the occasion. I bought a gallon of bubbles and left it running for the entire party. I also downloaded some music from the little mermaid  and also some hawaiian luau music that I played during the party as well. 

GOODIE BAGS: I bought two different types of  containers for the kids. For the boys I stuck with the pirate theme and bought little cardboard treasure chests. I filled them with gold coins stickers tattoos lollipops and a few other things that are skipping my mind at the time. For the girls I bought Little Mermaid cardboard purses that  were made to look like a clamshell with a pearl strap. They were filled with lipgloss mirror and brush sets hairties rings bracelets lollipops and more. Since  the goodie bags were so festive I put them out on a table to help act as another decoration. I stacked some of the treasure chests and it looked really cool. I also  put out some pirate bandanas and eye patches for the guys and little mermaid tiara's for the girls.

I had also put out some Little mermaid blowouts on the table for the kids to play with. I put this table opposite another table that was the present table.  In the middle of both tables I  used an old beat up chair that I decorated for the birthday girl to sit on to open her presents.  I put a blue blanket on the chair and then covered it with a sheer purple material and put seashells on it and some fake vines that had a seaweedish look  to them  as well as a fishnet (the kind you would hang up on the wall and put shells in as a decoration) the chair was a last minute throw together and it was almost the hit of the party. Everyone commented on it and said how long it must have taken me to do when in actuality I threw it together at the last minute because I was trying to hide an ugly old chair.  

FOOD: For food we tried to keep it simple because I was 9 month's pregnant so we stuck with food that I did not have to be on my feet cooking.  We ordered 8 pizza's as well as had other foods like hotdogs and  Meatball hogies Veggie and Dip trays Chips Potato salad and Macaroni salad. For drinks we just offered soda and bottled water. 

GAMES: The games we played were The Limbo Pass the treasure chest (hot potato) and the walk like sebastian crabwalk race.   As the guests were arriving at the party My daughter went up to them and handed out Lei's.  She took her "job" very seriously and there was nobody who was without a lei. I bought all of the decorations that I did not make by hand from either Oriental Trading or Birthday Direct. The party was a huge success and I still have compliments about it. It was easy to decorate because it was more than one theme. I used Little Mermaid Luau and Pirate decorations to make it all tie together. I Can't wait until next year..  "