What was the birthday party theme?
Mermaid Princess Spy 4th Birthday Party.
We're in a deep-sea phase (fish, mermaids, Nemo...) but in the weeks just before my daughter's birthday, she and her brother also got obsessed with playing this spy game. Basically they wear masks and jump out saying boo and telling whomever is around that they're spies. So we worked that into the party a bit too.
Tell us about the party.
We wanted to have a small party on the actual day of my daughter's birthday, but the weekend prior, we also had a special trip to the aquarium...thus starting the theme for the week.
On the invites for the party, my daughter wore fish pjs and a spy mask in the photo.
Holding true to the one-kid-per-candle rule, there were 4 friends (plus 2 older cousins) and relatives. The 4 and unders did a mask-making craft early on (except for Roman who just wanted to play with our Thomas trains LOL).
We spread the gift-opening out throughout the party (I find this MUCH better than one long gift opening session since it breaks things up and your child is less likely to compare gifts). We got an Elefun game -- an elephant shoots butterflies out its trunk and each kid tries to catch them in his/her net. So we played that for a while -- very fun!
We had pizza, then opened a pinata, played in groups for a while with random toys, then it was time for cake.
I made a mermaid cake by plopping an Ariel Barbie doll into a yellow cake and decorating around her with LOTS of frosting and pink glittery sprinkles.
After cake, the birthday girl got her final present -- 2 fish in a fish tank. She named them Mark and Sally (for reasons I don't really understand) and was very, very happy.
Lessons Learned
- I love baking, but just had no time to do too much this year. So I went the half homemade route with a boxed cake mix that I jazzed up with some extras. It was delicious and definitely less time consuming.
- I prefer morning parties (pre-nap) since we're morning people, but I went with a 3:00 start this year and it was excellent -- lesson: dare to go outside your comfort zone.
- It's never too early to prep. I've had a full schedule lately so I was really doing things last minute but in retrospect I could have gotten several things done 2-3 weeks beforehand (like shopping and making the pinata).
Megan Cooley, Kids' Parties & Celebrations Guide, says:
What fun, Maureen! Thanks for sharing.
I love a theme that blends a kid's passions, not matter how off the wall the combo seems. My daughter's fifth birthday had a "Sleeping Beauty Goes Camping" theme, and it ended up working great.
Thanks for the tip about opening presents throughout the party instead of all at once. I'm working on a series of articles about common behavioral/emotional issues at kids' parties, and one subject I'm planning on covering is how to calm the frenzy during gift opening. I'll be sure to link to your great idea!
