Under The Sea -1yr- Ceiling Ocean Tarps

I was deciding on what I wanted to do for my little boys 1st Birthday. I wanted to do something a little different.  I thought long and hard about it and decided to an Under the Sea theme.  Everytime he goes to his Mi-Mi & Poppa's house he goes straight to the fish tank. I got plenty of great ideas from the website.

For the invitation, I wanted to have something with the theme and also his picture. I searched online and really couldn't find anything that I fell in love with. So, I talked to my photographer and friend about making the invitations.  She couldn't have done a better job.  We went a few weeks before the party and dressed Parker in his swimsuit and did an Under the Sea background and his 1 year old pictures. 

I gave her the napkins from the party and she matched it exactly, also incorporating his pictures.  She did a 5 x 7 invitation front and back.  The front had a picture(under the sea theme) and read Under the sea  A party there will be  Come and have fun  Parker's turns ONE  Under the Sea"   On the back was a picture of him digging into his cake and it also had the party details...Port Cast off Date Dive Time Resurface time and SOS(rsvp). Everyone loved his invitations. 

I had several ideas for decorations. I was finally going to bite the bullet and order them online not being totally thrilled with the choices I had. I was walking into a local store one day and found the plates and napkins for a very cheap price and they were absolutley adorable and exactly what I was looking far. They were very whimsical and kiddie. I also purchased blue and green solid color plates and napkins to fill in between the themed plates and napkins. Which made things a little cheaper.  And I also got several of the blue and green solid color table cloths. We were having the party outside under our carport and in the back yard. 

We hung blue tarps all around the carport leaving a slight entrance for people to enter UNDER THE SEA.  I bought several under the sea pictures and hung them with clear fish string from the ceiling.  We also hung pearl white balloons at differnt levels to give it the bubble affect.  I also had a real bubble machine blowing tons of bubbles.  It really gave it an under the sea look. 

For centerpieces I bought goldfish bowls and put to real golfish in each bowl. They were to be given away later as prizes for a game. We had children of different ages so I was trying to think of several things I could do to keep them all entertained.  I set up two small plastic swimming pools. One with water which the kids fished (with magnetic fish and fishing poles) for prizes.  The other pool was filled with sand and sand toys.  The kids really enjoyed it.  My sons birthday party was the week before Easter so of course I wanted to do an Easter egg hunt but I didn't know if it would be appropriate for an Under the Sea party.

Well I was at the store one day and actually found under the sea Easter Eggs so I knew then I was definitley doing the Easter egg hunt!  I wrote Parker's ONE on two solid color easter eggs and whoever found those would win a special prize the goldfish that I used for the centerpieces.  We also had a precious pinata that I order online.    I wanted to keep the food very simple.  We had hot dogs and homeade chili.  Everyone enjoyed it and we didn't have tons of food left over which is exactly what I wanted. 

The CAKE was a huge HIT. I went to several different bakers. I finally found the lady who knew exactly what I wanted. I brough her the napkin and told her I wanted to have a two tier cake with blue icing like under the sea.I wanted the fish whale seahorse etc that were on the napkins to be on the sides of the cake and coming out on top.  She actually matched them to a tee.  It was very detailed and colorful. She even put bubbles and seaweed going up the sides of the cake and up from the top. 

The whale was the biggest sea creature on the napkin and was the cake topper and on the side of the cake she wrote "Happy 1st Birthday Parker" Everyone absolutley died when they saw it--including myself---I never dreamed it would be that real looking. It was very 3-D.  Everyone thought it looked like a cake that you would see on TV.  For Parker's cake for him to play in I purchased a fish cake pan.  My mom is very good at baking and decorating so she made his cake and it was so colorful and cute.  My mom and I also make about 3 dozen fish and whale shape cookies.  They were also a huge hit. I ad a few different favors.  When I bought the plates and napkins for the party there were also the hard plastic kid plates with the same exact print.  I purchased those and got solid color hard plastic cup and stuck it on top of the plate. 

I put several different under the sea items in the cup. A fish clapper fish tatoos fish candies message in a bottle sugar candies anything I could find that was under the sea.  I wrapped them all up in clear celophane(like you would do for a gift basket) and tied lime green and royal blue curly ribbons.  They were adorable once they were all put together. One of the moms asked where I got them made.  I also started saving the #2 plastic fruit and vegetable baby food containers.  I put colorful goldfish crackers in them and put a little label on top "Thank you for coming to my 1st Birthday party".  I also bought candy bars and my best friend made candy bar wrappers with the under the sea theme saying "Happy 1st Birthday Parker". 

Everyone loved them all even the adults.   There was a lot of planning put into this party.  But the key was to start earlier and pick up things here and there. I got a lot of decorations and game prizes at local dollar stores which helped make the party a little less inexpensive. My son and everyone else really enjoyed it and I had a really great time planning it all. "