mermaid pool party!

I can’t believe Lauren is FIVE! Crazy! I had so much fun planning her birthday party this year - I knew for a long time that we would be having a “pool party” to go with a mermaid theme. Last year it was SO HOT at her birthday that I decided that the next one absolutely needed to be a water party to embrace the heat and keep the kids cool while having fun. So - “DIVE INTO FIVE” became the theme for this year’s bash!

We hosted the party at my in-laws backyard that happens to be on a small lake! The location was perfect for a swimming-focused party! For a little water fun within the backyard, I obviously chose the Blushing Palms Minnidip pool and that pretty much set the scene for the rest of the fun pink decor and colour scheme for the party. (once again - I chose a colour scheme a little different from the usual purple+aqua mermaid colours!) I also let the girls toss in a bunch of white ball pit balls for “pearls”, and found a variety of fun pool floats - a few pink mermaid tail ones from SunnyLife, this enormous white clamshell one (that doubled as a fun place for the girls to sit during the party!), and a few other inexpensive seashell ones that I used as part of the decor as well!

For the table decor - I layered these pretty pink plates, pink cutlery, straws and shell napkins from A Little Confetti, and set up a little picnic table for the girls on the lawn, with a sweet fringed umbrella to add some shade! I hung this sweet scalloped tissue garland, and obviously had a pink number 5 balloon on display as well!

Little Chic Parties did such an amazing job designing the balloon garland! I really wanted to incorporate the clear bubble balloons and it turned out exactly how I pictured it!

You can download a customized DIVE INTO FIVE invitation in my digital shop here!

This little “lets be mermaids” sign made the cutest addition to the place setting. I got it printed on transparency film and then cut them out. They turned out so cute! I rented this sweet picnic table, white fringe umbrella and fringed grass placemats from Little Chic Parties and it was the perfect spot for the girls to sit and have a snack + do a little craft during the party! Having a designated “kids table” at parties is a must!

Of course I had to make some magic wands for the party! I made these starfish ones with a wooden starfish shape I found at the dollar store, and glued felt to either side in the same shape, and attached pretty ribbons+yarn in between the layers with a dowel. I finished the front with pearl stickers in varying sizes. So sweet!

I filled these pink bags with ripple/wavy chips and clipped the top with a seashell clothespin. I liked that it gave guests an individual bag for snacking instead of a communal bowl!

For the girl’s party bags, I used these adorable pink fabric baskets and filled them with some fun summer things that also had a mermaid theme: pearl headbands + clips, a pink glitter beach ball, strawberry madegood granola bar, mermaid rainbow pencil crayons, mermaid stickers, a hair scrunchie, and of course their mermaid tail towels that I made for each of them!

I attached these little iridescent confetti seashell cut-outs to each of the bags along with their nam tags. You can download your own custom tags like these with all of your party guests names on them here!

They also got to take home a little wooden treasure chest that they got to decorate. I put a tray together with an assortment of markers, gem stickers, pearl stickers and a few seashell foam stickers that the kids could easily (and relatively mess-free!) use to make their treasure chest special. I tucked the pearl hair clips and seashell mirrors inside each chest as a fun surprise. The girls also had fun collecting the little seashells that I had scattered around the party tables as well and tucking them in their treasure chests.

One of my favourite things I made for this party were the mermaid tail towels for each of the girls! I just used 1 pink towel and half of a beige towel for each one, and sewed them up using a pattern I made up! I added the little crocheted seashell to the front, (thanks to my mom for making those!) and sewed in a name tag on each one using these iron-on letters. The girls loved them - they all curled up in the clamshell floatie to warm up and it was so cute!

For food + snacks, I made pink rice crispie treats cut into mermaid tail and #5 shapes (I froze them individually a few days before the party and took them out as we needed them - it worked so well!), watermelon + cantaloupe cut into fish shapes, and a little snack mix that included pink mini marshmallows + cupcake goldfish graham crackers. I also made seashell graham cracker cookies to top the vanilla cupcakes with - I topped each one with a blush buttercream frosting and a seashell - and placed them in these adorable blush tulip baking cups from Fiona Lane. For the cake toppers, I printed out the mermaid tail and #5 on transparency paper, and then sewed them onto coral + blush coloured felt. I really liked how the transparency gave it a shiny look! (want to make your own? click here for the files!)

Contributors:

TABLEWARES + DECOR : A Little Confetti

BALLOONS : Little Chic Parties

PLANNING + PHOTOGRAPHY : emelbe design

STATIONERY + TAGS : emelbe design

CORAL HAIR BOW : GenBow Club