Beach Party in the Backyard for my two 4year olds The invitations were printed off the computer on paper that was cut out to look like a sand bucket telling time place, and to wear swim suit. The backyard was transformed into a beach.  I used their little Tykes playhouse and sat it on a blue tarp then covered part of the tarp with sand positioned inflatable palm trees on either side and had lounge chairs sitting underneath the palms. With a sign that said Welcome to our Key West Beach party. Behind that were pools everywhere.a big family size pool with a basketball hoop at one end.  A pool that was for the smaller ones (2 and under) that had a palm tree sprinkler going as well as the pool this one had a slide. The other two I put slides into as well for added fun. As the kids arrived they were handed "treasure bags" to collect their loot. The first thing we did while we waited for everyone to arrive was make "candy/sand art" necklaces.  I purchased the empty necklaces from oriental trading and had them fill the necklaces with pixie sticks.  It was hot so everyone wanted to get wet first.they all ran through the sprinklers(flamingo on)and then played a quick game of BB in the family size pool. Next they gathered their bags and headed for the sandbox treasure game.I had buried some "treasures" in the sand and each child got to dig around until they found 2 prizes then it was a free for all until all of the prizes were found. Next we went fishing for prizes. I put up a fish shower curtain and my niece stood behind the curtain and clipped the prizes to the clothes pin on the end of the fishing pole.. Then everyone gathered in the family size pool and played pass Sponge Bob a yellow sponge that I glued eyes, pipe cleaner hands/legs to and we made sure it was good and wet as we started passing it each time. The kids loved that.  I also had a toss the ring on the flamingo game and made it more of a challenge because the flamingo was floating in one of the pools. I also hung the fish pinata over one of the pools which made it a little more challenging and it(the pinata) was filled with water toys. Once it was broken open they all played in the water with the toys. My niece slipped away while we were playing some games and showed up as Sponge Bob Squarepants. I made the costume from a twin egg-crate mattress and construction paper (off Nick site) The kids LOVED it and everyone had their picture taken with him..then he left to go back to his pineapple under the sea. This was a BIG surprise for my girls they had NO idea SB was coming to the party. Dinner was served: surfin dogs, boogie board burgers, Planktons(Hawaiian chicken tenderloins) Jell-O aquariums with Sponge Bob jelly pops and swedish fish swimming inside this was done in a big fish bowl (took 17 cups of Jell-O to fill it up), mac-n-cheese made with sea shell and Sponge Bob pasta, seafood and sea shell pasta salad, fruit kabobs, Hawaiian cole slaw, beans, chips, gold fish crackers...small and Giant ones as well as Sponge Bob crackers mixed in, and veggies with dip. All of the dishes were served in Sand buckets and we used shovels to dip it out. I softened the ice-cream and put it in Sand castle moulds and refroze it...the trick is to line the mould with saran wrap. Then run the mould under hot water and it slips out on a serving bowl. I took graham cracker crumbs and patted it on the ice cream so that it looked like "sand castles" This was served with a sand shovel as well. The cake was simple sheet cake Iced 1/2 in blue like water the other half white icing that I added graham cracker crumbs to so that it looked like sand.  I went to the Dollar tree and bought two Barbie doll size lounge chairs and umbrellas and put them in the sand on the top of the cake. Sat Barbie dolls with bathing suits on in them. The cake was cut and served with a shovel to continue the theme.  After opening presents the children had to go on a treasure hunt and along the way each of them found their "goody" buckets with their names printed on the shovels at the very end of the hunt was a treasure chest with candy necklaces, lei's, prizes, candy rings, gold chocolate coins. Everyone said they had a blast and couldn't wait until next year!