real parties: under the sea

Karen recently sent me me these fantastic pictures & details from her son’s Under the Sea themed birthday party. There were so many to choose from that I only hope I did it justice! Karen had a lot of great things to say about her ideas and prep, so I thought I’d simply share the party in her own words:

Invites: I found the invitations on etsy.com, and I worked with the designer Heather from Chickabug, on some custom changes to the invitations, address labels, and ground signs. I added some animals here and there, and I made all the text my own. In addition, the address labels for the invites said: “Don’t be crabby, Sea you there.” The address labels for the coordinating thank you cards said: “Thank you for Coming, Sea you soon.”

Signs: Again, I worked with Chickabug to make ground signs leading into the party. “Clam on in” and “He’s a Keeper!”

Cake: The cake was custom made by a local bakery, Kalupa’s Bakery, in South Tampa. The cake – and the smash cake – were adorable – and DELICIOUS!

Ben's Fishing Hole: I used a small blow up baby pool for a magnetic fishing game – Ben’s Fishing Hole. The kids loved FISHING! For other games… Although I don’t have a good photo of it, I also had sand art for the kids to play with – with clear bottles in the shape of starfish, fish, octopus, and whale. For the little ones, I put a blanket down and had a few sea-themed puzzles, toys and balls to play with. Also, the party was at a park, so the kids did the typical playground stuff.

Favor Buckets: The favor buckets were stuffed with tons of fish and sea-themed items. I did one for babies and one for kids. Fish board books, under the sea fun pads, fish castanettes, fish teethers, sea creature tattoos and stickers, beach balls with sea animals inside, fish ring pops, Go Fish card games, sea stampers, shell bead necklaces, suction balls, etc. They were a hit. And, they all came with a favor tag that said: “Thanks for playing with me under the sea. So glad you were here to celebrate with me.” I wrote each child’s name on the back of the tag.

Peanut Butter and Jellyfish: I tried to give cute sea-themed names to all of the food, and I labeled everything on Chickabug menu cards. Seaweed salad, Submarine sandwiches, Octodogs, Fruit of the sea, Shrimpy salad, etc.

Some of the photos were taken by me, and some of them (the better ones) were taken by Susan Gentile.