For my twelth Birthday party, I had decided to go with an "Under the sea" theme. i invited twelve people, because if i went higher, some things would have been too expensive, so i would suggest 10-15 people. I found some really cool paper turtles that, even though they werent meant for invitations, i used. on the front i typed "Hey, did you hear? we're going under the sea, you're invited to a birthday party, celebrated for me!" and on the other side, i wrote the DATE, TIME, PLACE, FOR, and any other information needed (e.g. if it will be a sleepover or to bring a swimsuit). for  \*\*\*DECORATIONS\*\*\*: we covered the lights with blue celophane paper, which gave it an "under water" feeling, and placed my fish in places they would be noticed (I'm a fish fanatic and have lots of fishies), and hung fish turtle and other sea creature pictures all over the place. I am in love with turtles, and have lots of turtle stuffed animals, and set them in places they will be noticed also. My friends and I made this mural a while ago with a theme of "under the sea", and we still had that. We had cut out green peices of seaweed and had a few fish, and its really easy to make. We hung that up on one wall, and i made an anchor out of poster board, and i painted it black. It would help if you had a green or blue or sandy looking carpet, but we didn't, and it didn't matter much. We also ordered some cardboard fishies that hung from twirled crepe paper and that looked pretty cool. \*\*\*GAMES\*\*\*\*: for games, we first painted sea shells, and put them out to dry. Then we played pin the fish in the seaweed, which is like pin the tail on the donkey, but the birthday girl/boy picks a seaweed leaf and doesn't tell anyone, and the one who gets it on or nearest to his specific seaweed wins. if two people get on the seaweed, then those two/three/four ect. Do a championship. We also played that fishing game whereon one side there is a baby pool, and on the other side there is the player with a fishing rod (not a real one, a little play one) and in between there is a board, so the player cant see the baby pool. Inside the baby pool are plastic fishies with numbers on them and the numbers determine your prize ect. we also gave everyone a beach tote bag to paint with fabric paint, but another idea are hats or whatever. we also gave out squirt guns and had a water battle, and then we emptied out the baby pool and filled it with sand, and had a sand castle contest. for prizes, i gave out little goldfish, that you can buy at a pet store for around 50 cents each. We also played sharks and minnows, which is a game where one person (the shark) stands in the middle, and when he yells sharks and minnows, everyone (the minnows) crosses, and the shark tries to grab as many as possible, and when they are touched they join the forces of the shark. we also played dolphin ring toss, where there thew mini baby hula hoops that around an inflatable dolphin. \*\*SNACKS\*\*\* we put out goldfish crackers on little shell shaped dishes along with swedish fish. For one of the games we had a guess how many, and it was with little candy sea creatures. Whoever won got it all. We had a vanilla cake with blue icing and little swedish fish all around, and green seaweed. In the middle we put "KAREN'S UNDERWATER PARTY 2003" with candy letters. We also served hotdogs and such.   \*\*\*GIFT BAGS\*\*\* The goody bags were little blue bags with fishies on it. Inside there was candy, bubbles, and a beach ball, but you might consider other things like beach toys and pool toys.  Each person got one, along with all the other: -hat/ totebag -sea shells -goldfish/other prizes -watergun  and altogether this was the coolest party in grade six and all my friends were talking about it forever. We all had the time of our life and in future sleepovers between us it gave lots of things to talk about and most of this works with younger kids or older kids. Also it was under $100