Can we do a Mermaid Party?
“Hello, Mom? Do you think we can do a Mermaid Princess birthday party for Halo?”
Birthday parties are the delight of all little girls and big girls alike. But “tweenagers” are the hardest to plan for. They are teetering on the edge of being darling little girls and much more “mature” teenagers. Birthday parties for this age group must be girly and fun, but not too babyish. Perhaps, at this age, (11 years) it could be the last “little girl” party, so when I got the call from my daughter asking for ideas for a mermaid princess party, I immediately accepted the challenge!
A Mermaid Princess Party
Throwing a magical Mermaid Princess party could come with an extreme price tag. My daughters are of the persuasion that Mom can make chicken salad out of chicken poop, so I am fairly certain my expertise in the mermaid department had nothing to do with that call. Nonetheless, I was thrilled to be involved in planning a Mermaid Princess party.
Let’s face it, I mean, really, who doesn’t love a Mermaid Princess Party? Don’t we all love Mermaids? Oh you know, the real ones, not like Ariel, the little mermaid on the Disney movie. I am talking about the all grown up, REAL mermaids, complete with all the bling and glitter we can pile on! A grand Mermaid Princess Party could excite the little girl in a lot of us, you know who you are!
Entering stage left… PINTEREST! Most of you know by now that Pinterest is full of amazing ideas, With 1000s of boards loaded with 1000s of pins, making it the perfect place for mermaid ideas. After a few minutes of looking and pinning Pinterest favorites to my secret Mermaid Party board, I knew this was going to be fun!
My granddaughter was going to have an enchanting Mermaid Princess party, not “little girlish”, but all teenagery. (Is that even a word?) This party would have glitter, bling, party favors and would look as if it were catered by a sea goddess. The mermaids of this celebration would be as lifelike as possible.
And just so you know, the girls in my family believe mermaids are real, and we are all mermaid princesses.
Mermaids ARE real, don’t judge.
First, the non-food items I made for the party. Armed with awesome ideas from Pinterest, I made some of the decorations and party favors, and even a cake topper that we didn’t use.
The Letter H
My granddaughter’s name is Halo, so a cake topper was made with her initial “H”. A wooden H letter was painted in an ocean blue, and the scales were done in purple and gold and accented with seaweed and flowers left over from other projects. This idea, like a lot of other ideas, came from Pinterest. Acrylic craft paints were used in this project.
Mermaid necklaces.
These were made from jumbo flat marbles. I painted the flat side with glitter fingernail polish, glued bails to them and strung them on necklace cords. Magical, glittery, and cheap.
Next were the mermaid wands.
Now, it just so happened that I had in my possession 100 preserved starfish. They were collected from Folly Beach, near Charleston SC. While hubby and I were on one of our adventures, 1000s of starfish were found dead on the beach. They had washed up during the night. The environmental scientists were there trying to figure out what happened that so many would wash up and die. One of the environmentalists told me how to preserve them. Who knew that 2 full years later I would need 12 mermaid wands?
I spray painted the stars with a blue paint, and then with a silver glitter. They were glued to dowels and adorned with ribbons and tulle. A sad day at Folly Beach allowed for perfect mermaid scepter. I hope they figured out what killed so many of them.
Every party needs a photo booth.
We fudged a little on the booth but threw together a backdrop for pictures. A purple plastic tablecloth from Dollar Tree draped over a screen made a nice background. For photo booth props, I cut out shapes that were drawn on the backs of glitter scrapbook paper and taped them to dowels. Us girls can’t pass a photo opportunity!
Bubbles!
What is a girly party without bubbles? These bubbles were wedding bubbles. The bottom half was painted with Modge Podge and sprinkled with glitter. Ribbons were tied around the top.
All mermaid princesses need crowns.
These crowns were made with shells from my own collections. I cut craft wire about 15 inches long and bent loops on each end and wrapped with floral tape. Seaweed looking foliage, flowers, and shells were hot glued to the wire. A ribbon was tied on the loops on both sides. The crowns were bent to fit the girls’ heads and tied with ribbons. One size fits all!
Mermaid Ponytails!
The mermaid hair ties were just ribbons tied onto hair ties. We displayed them on an old bottle that was found at the bottom of the sea….not really…Ok, Mawmaw gets carried away in the theme.
Dinglehoppers!
Ok, I had to sneak a “little girl mermaid” item from the Disney movie. How can we have a mermaid feast without dinglehoppers? The plastic forks were from the Dollar Tree and were decorated with adhesive bling. The all grown up tweenagers humored me and loved the dinglehoppers.
A Mermaid Feast
Since our party was in the evening we had to have a mermaid feast. Below was our menu.
Celebrating the Mermaid in all of us!
The dinner was completely based on what Real mermaids would eat. Name cards were placed on each dish to identify them. Our mermaid princesses enjoyed the feast and ate many dishes they were certain they would never eat under normal circumstances. All in all, it was a fun evening of eating, dancing, and celebrating our Mermaidness!
Score 1 for Mawmaw!
More Mermaid Ideas
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