Under The Sea Party - Sand Art Craft

This is a great party if your child loves The Little Mermaid and/or Under the Sea. Hope you find this useful. 

Invitations: Cut paper into the shape of a seashell and decorate how desired, some suggestions are pictures of the characters, glitter, stickers, etc. On the back of the shell, write the party information. Instead of a seashell, you could shape the invitation like a fish or a mermaid. 

Decorations: Use three tablecloths that are different shades of blue. Put the first on and don’t cut it. Then put the second one on and cut it so it is shorter than the first tablecloth. Last, put the third tablecloth on top and cut it shorter than the second tablecloth. This creates a layer/ripple effect that looks like the waves in the ocean. In an indoor location, use blue, green and purple helium balloons and tie strings to them. Let them float up to the ceiling. On the ends of the string, attach foam sea creatures. These will also serve as a gift for the kids to take home with them after the party. On the chairs, tie green bows made from ribbon. Hang a fishnet from the wall or ceiling and fill it with plastic sea creatures and coral. Use streamers to decorate extra space. Use a bubble machine. 

Activities: Sand Art-have the guests fill fun shaped bottles with colorful sand (can be bought as a kit). Go swimming if you have a pool or set up a sprinkler or slip n’ slide. Make Clothespin mermaids- use precut foam in the shape of the fins and the kids glue those onto the bottom of the clothespin. The guests can then paint and decorate the clothespin to look like a mermaid. Use red yarn for the hair. Paper bowl jellyfish- have lots of precut ribbon ready for this activity. Turn the bowl upside down and glue googly eyes  to the side. Have markers, colored pencils and crayons ready for them to decorate the bowl. Once decorated, glue ribbon, string and/or streamers to the inside to create the tentacles. Have The Little Mermaid playing inside for those who want to take a break between games and activities.  

Games: Mermaid race-Make mermaid tails for all of the guests out of trash bags. Have a start line and an end line. The guests lay on their stomachs and they have to get to the finish line using their mermaid tail. This game could also be played standing up, which would be similar to a potato sack race. Dig for gadgets, gizmos, whosits, whatsits, and thingamabobs(this is what Ariel called her treasures)-fill up a kiddie pool with sand and hide treasure in it. (Treasure could be rubber ducks, small stuffed animals, paddleballs, squirt guns, etc.) Limbo- attach streamers to the stick to make it more exciting. 

Costumes: No costumes needed, have guests bring bathing suits if you want to have water activities. 

Party Snacks: Goldfish, fruit, sandwiches cut into stars (peanut butter and jellyfish), seaweed juice (grape juice and 7 up), Fish poop (peanuts), Octopus on seaweed- hot dogs with the bottom half cut to look like legs on top of spaghetti (which can be dyed green to look more like seaweed), Swedish Fish, Oyster Pearls(mini marshmallows). 

Cake: Make a cake of your desired flavor and frost in any color. One idea is to buy  The Little Mermaid Icing Decorations and put those on top (works well with cupcakes), put an Ariel Barbie on top of the cake and decorate with lots of coral and flowers. Crush up graham crackers to create a sand/beach look (could make a sandcastle cake). 

Favors: Small things of bubbles, the crafts that they created, balloons, mini beach balls, chocolate, sand pail and shovel, beach towel.