Adventures on Mermaid Island My 6-yr-old daughter is into mermaids and wanted a mermaid party for her birthday. To accommodate her girl friends as well as the boys we had mermaid and pirate themed favors and activities. Our invitations were printed on ocean-blue card stock. We cut the top edge with wave scissors, ran a glue stick across the "waves" and dipped them in iradescent glitter to make the waves shimmer. We also ran the glue stick across the bottom of the card and dipped them in fine sand mixed with glitter. This was so easy to do, that my daughter was able to do a lot of it herself. We then put each card into a clear zip-style sandwich bag and added funfetti such as fish, palm trees, and suns. Each packet also contained a small clipart mermaid, pirate and pirate ship which I just printed out off the computer and cut out. We then put mailing labels and stamps on the back side of the baggies and sent them right through the mail. Yes, they can be mailed! The kids were delighted to get such interesting mail. We held the party at the picnic area beside an indoor kiddie pool. Decorating was a cinch--aqua blue balloons and streamers everywhere and blue table cloths from the Dollar Tree. We got tropical island party plates and napkins from the Dollar Tree. As the kids arrived we gave the boys pirate bandanas, an eye patch and a sword (all from Oriental Trading Co. The girls got leis and matching bracelets, crowns (which my daughter and I made from card stock, ribbon, and self adhesive jewels) and shell bras (which we also made by cutting shells from felt and decorating them with glitter. We used clear plastic cording for ties.)For lunch we served seaweed and seashells (spinach linguini and shell pasta) sprinkled with sand (parmesan cheese, and goldfish crackers that were served around an island made from 1/2 a cantalope with a carrot topped with a carved bell pepper for a palm tree. We had blue punch to drink. My sister and I made an enchanting cake: a large sheet cake covered with aqua-blue icing swirled like waves and a bowl shaped "island" on top decorated roughly with rock-gray icing and surrounded by seaweed strips cut from green fruit-by-the-foot. (It was REALLY easy to decorate. You don't have to be an expert.) We perched a Fairytopia mermaid Barbie on top of the island as though she were rising up out of the sea. GORGEOUS! After lunch we had a hunt for the treasure of the Dread Pirate Roberts. We wrote up rhyming clue cards that sent the kids all around the park and eventually ended up at a treasure trunk containing a treat bag for each kid and scattered fake coins and bead necklaces for effect. Treats included tatoos, gold coin bubble gum, glittery fish stickers, and a fish shaped pen. The kids went nuts over this activity. Once the treasure was found the birthday girl opened her treasure. We concluded the party with swimming at the pool at which time my daughter sported her mermaid costume bathing suit. She was the talk of the pool. The kids had a ball; it doesn't get much better!