Mermaids Love To Swim And Party

Everyone thought I was a little crazy for having a swim party in January, the middle of winter. But, you gotta give the birthday girl what she wants.

It all started last July when Jonah was having a swim party for HIS birthday. Daphne was complaining that her birthday was in January and asked why I didn't have her in the summer, and that she would never get to have a swimming party. I told her that if she really wanted a pool party, we would make it happen. Add in the mermaid theme, and you've got Daphne's 6th birthday party. We had a blast.... uh, I mean, a "splash"! Like I said in Daphne's birthday post, she has a lot of friends. She is very outgoing and fun, and a lot of people like her. She had a really hard time choosing people to come to her party. She's got school friends, neighborhood friends, church friends, girl scout friends, and so on. Luckily, the pool we rented allowed up to 20 kids (there were only 2 lifeguards, and they needed to hire more if there were over 20 children), so she was able to invite 12 girls, and there was still room for our 5 kids. I had a lot of fun planning the party around this theme. Since we were swimming for an hour and a half, I didn't have a whole lot left to do, which was nice. I rented a room for after swimming (we used our local YMCA) and it was one of the rooms they use for preschool. It was great because they covered all of the preschool stuff up and moved it to the back of the room. They did all the set-up of tables and chairs and all I had to do was set-up my stuff. I stuck with the basic theme of dark blue, purple, and aqua. It turned out really cute.

Andy is an amazing artist and just whipped this up, freehand, the morning of the party. It was "Pin the Fin on the Mermaid" because she is missing one of her tail fins. So cute. We played this game, and we also decorated crowns.

I had the most fun coming up with the finger foods. We had goldfish, starfish rice krispie treats, two kinds of black pearls (olives and blueberries), sushi sandwiches (white bread, turkey, cream cheese, cucumbers, and shredded cheddar), and clam chips (Tostitos scoops). Daphne loves red velvet cupcakes, so we had those with a swedish fish on top of each one. I was going to do blue gatorade, but she insisted on pink lemonade. I added limes, and it looked pretty.

We used curling ribbon stapled onto the crowns after they were decorated, to tie them onto each girls head. I also made THESE as party favors for each girl. They turned our super cute, and were very easy. Unfortunately, I wasn't good at taking very many pictures, and I never got a great one of the mermaid tails. Also, I got most of my ideas and decor ideas from THIS website. I thought everything turned out pretty cute. And Daphne loved it, which is what matters the most.

I also have to give a shout-out to my dear friend Ira, who helped me with set-up, the making of the mermaid tails, and clean-up. She's such a wonderful friend. Another shout out goes to my fabulous husband, who helps and goes along with all of my crazy ideas (without complaining), even when he doesn't want to.

We waited for all of the girls to show-up and then we got a swimmin' and a splashin'! I had a nightmare that some of the girls drowned at the party (even though there were lifeguards), and so my Andy generously agreed to stay in the water with the kids the whole time. It put my mind at ease.

Mermaid Daphne!

Everyone had a great time swimming, and after we were done, we hopped out and showered and changed. Then, we headed to the party room...

Like I said, I felt really busy at the party and didn't get a whole lot of pictures. But, we played Pin the Fin on the Mermaid, and decorated our crowns. After that, the kids got some snacks and had a fun time chatting about silly girl things.

How ironic that Jonah, 1 of the only 2 boys there, won the Mermaid game. He swears he didn't cheat, but he got the fin right where it was supposed to go.

After we finished eating, we all grabbed a cupcake and sang Happy Birthday to Miss Daphne
And since we weren't allowed to have fire in the Y, she just pretended to blow out a candle, and she actually blew off her swedish fish.

Present time! Daphne got so many fun things: mermaid barbies, video barbie, babydoll clothes, art and play-doh kits, books, make-up and nail polish, and a few clothes. Lucky lucky girl.

Thanks for coming to be a Mermaid for a Day!

It was a fun party, and the Mermaid girl.... I mean, birthday girl, was a happy little lady.