My daughter recently became obsessed with Disney's Little Mermaid and decided that she wanted her third birthday party to have this theme. Since the children involved ranged in age from three to eight, I needed some varied activities to keep all their interest. My first inspiration came from the idea of under the sea. I went to the fabric store in town and bought several yards of blue fabric from the discount shelf. From Oriental trading, I purchased blow-up fish beach balls, and from an online store, purchased green, teal, and blue balloons in bulk. Using these items, I turned my basement, which has a lower ceiling, into an underwater grotto. The fabric worked for a curtain to confine the area and hide the walls. I blew up enough balloons to make a giant balloon pile that covered the floor and came up as high as the seat of the couch. The blow up fish beach balls hung from the ceiling on fishing line and swam" in the balloon ocean. Green crepe streamers and some old bead necklaces made "seaweed" to tickle them on their way down the stairwell and from the ceiling once they entered the grotto.  When the kids arrived for the party they picked up their name tag that either assigned them to the Flounder or the Sebastian team and then they played Marco Polo with the person who was "it" blindfolded in the living room until everyone arrived. After everyone arrived I had the kids take off their shoes and I led the party to the curtain and explained the first activity. On the floor under the balloons I had scattered fish ring pops fish bouncy balls unpainted fish suncatchers and a few wooden fish beads. Hung on the wall were two baskets one with Flounder and one with Sebastian on it printed from the internet. The kids were to find as many items as they could in two minutes placing each item they found under the balloons into their team basket. I warned them to search with their feet. The team that found the most items received first choice of candy or stickers and the leftover prizes went to the second team. By putting all the prizes into the team baskets I could then split them evenly between each child into the goody bags. As I and my mother counted the items in each basket we set aside the suncatchers. After the awarding of the prizes the kids went back upstairs where my mother had set up the painting station while they were downstairs finding the prizes. She supervised them as they painted their suncatchers with the suncatcher paint pens. While they did this I sorted the rest of the found items into the goody bags and tossed bags with the wooden fish beads under the balloon ocean  When the kids finished painting they came back downstairs for the next activity. Inside each purple balloon one for each child I had placed several plastic beads and a length of beading string with the first bead already tied off. The children had to first find a bag of fish beads and then take their purple balloon upstairs to pop it where my mom had set up a beading station with some extra round beads in cups for them to make a necklace. When the necklaces were finished they came downstairs to play "place the hair-shell" on a four-foot Ariel wall sticker I found on the site where I purchased the party pack. I had three sticker sheets I found on sale in Big Lots for the winners and I cut up two other sheets so everyone could have a small prize. I turned them loose in the grotto to play with the balloons popping them at will while I went upstairs to set out the food. I had purchased a Little Mermaid party pack online for a really great deal getting all the plates cups napkins goody bags and tablecloth for around $20. For the adults I had found coordinating colored plain paper plates and cups at another site. The cake was made for the party by the local high school's culinary arts class and cost me $8 for a beautiful Ariel cake. I also made fish shaped cookies from store-bought dough and frosted them. Several different shakers of toppings allowed the kids to decorate their own dessert. After they ate we opened presents in the grotto which I cleaned up fairly quickly as they ate. I passed out the goody bags as they went back upstairs where they picked up their dried suncatchers and headed home. The planning and preparation for this party wasn't too complicated with one other person (my mother) to help me manage the events. Blowing up the balloons took the most time and any bedroom could be transformed into a grotto. I was very pleased with how well the children took to the events and though the little ones needed some help with the painting and stringing the parents seemed to enjoy the time with their kids too. The whole party cost me around $120 thanks to some serious online surfing for the best deals."