mermaid birthday party for a little girl

Juliet turned 3 earlier this month and at her request, we celebrated with a mermaid birthday party. I have to admit: I had a lot of fun putting this together!

The Inspiration

The first thing that came to my mind was this gorgeous mermaid figurine Ben gave to me years ago. She lives in my bathroom and is most likely the first mermaid Juliet ever laid eyes on. I LOVE her colors and thought she would be the perfect centerpiece for the party's overall decor.

My next source of inspiration was, yes, you guessed it, two books! The first one is a vintage book called A Maxton Book About Sea Shells published in 1954. I love the illustrations of shells and undersea life and wanted to include an aspect of it in the party as well.

The second book Father Bear Comes Home  by Else Holemund Minarik, Illustrated by Maurice Sendak features a very charming mermaid. Since we read this book quite often, I'm sure she is part of the reason Juliet requested this party theme (along with a certain red-haired mermaid!)

The Invitations

I found these gorgeous shells at the most unlikely place--Wal-Mart! They were perfect for our invitations.

I simply used a permanent marker and wrote the party details inside. We then hand-delivered the shells to her little friends. I think this got the mermaid excitement going for this fun group of three year olds!

The Party Wear

I considered making Juliet a mermaid costume, but in the end I didn't have enough time (nor enough skill), so I just had her wear a mermaid inspired party outfit. I found this metallic skirt at Old Navy and thought it was perfect for a little mermaid to run around in.

I did manage to fashion a beautiful starfish headband for Juliet to wear by hot-gluing a starfish to a plain white headband. And while it was very cute, it was apparently not very comfortable because Juliet wore it for a total of 30 seconds.

I had grand ideas of making these lovely mermaid crowns for the little guests, but ran out of time. Luckily, I found these shell-y looking crowns at the dollar store. (Juliet wore the green one for the ENTIRE party after she ditched the starfish crown.) For the boys, I had glow-in-the-dark tridents for them to carry around and beat things (like my walls and furniture) and people (like all the little mermaid girls) with. As it turns out, all the little girls were disappointed that all they got was a crown--the tridents were the coveted item! Probably, they wanted in on the beat-down fun!

We also had this treasure chest filled with jewels for the guests to wear.

The Decorations

I found some discounted green and gold Christmas garland and the dollar store that I used to make a bubble curtain in the kitchen entryway. Ben taped green streamers to the ceilings of the kitchen and living room to create a "seaweed effect". I think he did a beautiful job*. We also hung a tissue paper fish from the center of the kitchen over the kids' table.

*WARNING: If you give your husband some tape and two rolls of crepe paper and FULL CREATIVE LICENSE for decorating, then you must be prepared for things like the glass globe on your ceiling fan to be shattered with no apparent explanation.

I made a giant oyster shell (complete with pearl) to serve as a present holder. (It was inspired by this one if you are interested.)

The pearl was irresistible to little mermaid hands!

I placed some of Juliet's mermaid dolls around to add to the ambiance.

The food table and the kids' table were both decorated with shells and various sea/fish objects we had around the house.

My lovely mermaid acted as the "cake decoration" even though we didn't have a cake, but cupcakes.

The Food

We started with a goldfish bar (4 kinds of goldfish crackers served in shell-shaped bowls!) and aquarium jello (blue jello with swedish fish).

And we finished with pink frosted cupcakes! (Juliet insisted that mermaid cupcakes were pink.)

The Activities

The kids had fun decorating place mats and mermaid boxes with sea-themed foam stickers.

The Favors

Each mermaid box was filled with aquarium rocks, tiny shells, and a clothespin mermaid that I made after seeing this ocean in a box idea at Pink and Green Mama.

Each child took home an Ariel bubble necklace (you knew she would show up eventually!) and a bag of rainbow goldfish crackers along with their place mats and mermaid boxes.

Do you have any favorite mermaid books, mermaid craft activities, or special party memories to share?

{I'm linking up to Strut Your Stuff Thursday @ Somewhat Simple and ABC and 123.}