For my daughters 9th birthday in January, we decided to have a beach party. Everyone arrived in their beach attire & we began with face painting (palm trees, sea shells, fish, crabs, beach balls etc) While some of the kids were waiting to get their faces done, they made animals out of sea shells (lady bugs, butterfly magnets, with two small shells glued to strip magnets) & decorated with pipe cleaners & glitter.  Then they painted with fabric paint on their "beach bags", which I made out of a hand towel folded & sewn in half with ribbon handles at the top. We had a summertime lunch- hot dogs, veggies & dip, quesadillas, watermelon & fruit punch & then went downstairs for a game of beach blanket bingo. Then "I went to the beach one day, & with me I brought my...", where each child had to add a new item to take to the beach & remember what the previous kids had said. The limbo & hula hoop contests were a real hit, accompanied by Beach Boys music. The beach ball shaped piñata & pin the leaf on the palm tree were next. Everyone enjoyed the beach ball cake (I made a round cake using 2 bowls to bake the cake mixes in) & decorated it with stripes of icing the colors of a beach ball. Around it was cookie crumb "sand" & cupcakes shaped like shells. The goody bags were the beach bags they had decorated & in them I put shell shaped soaps, hair clips, lip gloss, memo books & beach stickers & the shell animals they had made plus the candy & prizes from the piñata & games. It was a great party & my daughter would like to have another one next birthday!!