My son turned 6 years old on Sept. 22nd- a month after he started kindergarten.  We moved to this area last year around his birthday and had a small get together with grandparents and no children. This year he asked me for a party with children. We began discussing themes and naturally arrived at the Under The Sea theme because my son loves to swim and wanted a pool party. I was a bit hesitant about throwing a pool party with young children so I decided to rent our clubhouse next to the pool and host the party indoors and make swimming optional. We were new to the area and did not know many kids either so I went out on a limb and decided to invite all 25 classmates to his party. I knew absolutely none of the mothers except through contact after school when we stood around the door to the school to pick up our kids so I did not know what response I would get, but I thought hey, what a way to get to know other moms! I had recently quit working(I used to be a children's storyteller at a library and we have a new baby) and thought hard and long about how I could budget a party for 25 kids and parents. With a lot of help from my kindergartner this is what we arrived at: We bought sea confetti and wrote out our invites in "curlz" font on computer, We added a piece of green wavy construction paper and closed it all in a ziploc baggie and my son delivered the invitations at school 2 weeks ahead of the party. We promised the children that there would be a craft, games, snacks and to bring 1 adult for swimming. What a response. We had 17 confirmations in 3 days.  On the day of the party... We had the clubhouse decked out in green and blue streamers on the windows with construction paper fish my son had added silly faces to. I also had a dozen helium filled balloons tied to chairs in sea foam green and midnight blue to simulate ocean. We had designed 17 fish nametags made out of blue tagboard with names in glitter and attached blue gimp and a paper clip. We then bought a dowl and attached magnet and string so kids could use to fish for nametag at party. We had all the fishies on a big piece of turquoise cloth at the door. This was our icebreaker- as each child arrived at the party they fished for their name tag and entered the party room and I introduced myself to each mom. I had bought blue felt remnant and designed an under the sea scene with sons help and made felt creatures for a felt story. We hung this over window at our clubhouse with streamers of blue and green around the borders. We put seashells on the window sill. When all children arrived I had them sit down and welcomed them and their moms, told them what we were going to do quickly and started immediately reading "rainbow fish". I then invited them to do 2 fingerplays(five little fishies and 1,2,3,4,5 once I caught a fish alive.." and together we did a felt story  "seagull seagull what do you see? (like Brown bear, brown bear. This was a real attention getter and all the kids were very interested and calm. I then recruited a parent and we passed out fun foam frames in green, blue and white and gave little Dixie cups filled with a magnet (for hanging) and fun foam fish and sea creatures along with tubes of glue and newspaper. I had the children buddy up with a classmate/friend and dig into craft. They loved it! I asked the adults to participate by writing child's name on craft. After this, they held onto their Dixie cup which was then filled up with blue and green and rainbow beads and green pipecleaners and they made sparkly rainbow fish and bracelets. After this was completed I had them all stop and find mommy/Daddy/grandma and give the beadcraft over in exchange for a towel and/or swimgear. I brought along a whistle and told them that when they heard the whistle they needed to come out for a game and cake. We then went out to pool-they swam for 20 min. I added fishies and other toys for fun diving. When they came out they all stood around a fishy print piece of fabric and chose a sea creature to take home. We then had a beautiful under the sea cake decorated in gorgeous turquoise blue(Wal-Mart makes a really yummy cake for about 20 dollars which feeds 50 people) with gummy fish all over it. Moms and Dads helped me cut and serve. We then did "hot and cold" treasure hunt for treasure box (my son wrapped plastic storage box in foil and made lock and hinges out of paint and brown construction paper and paint). I had recruited a mom to hide box. Inside the box were party favors my son and I designed- 2 pieces of salt water taffy and a gummy shark wrapped in green toole (net) bought at 52 cents a yard at Wal-Mart. We wrapped up the treats in a sparkly iridescent green ribbon and it looked like a shark caught in a net. Kids loved it! Snack and drinks included Capri suns for kids and cheddar whales and goldfish and soda and punch for adults. Held party from 10-12 so no meltdowns at all. Played Raffi's Baby Beluga CD as background music as well. Many happy children for days afterward, moms are still saying to me how much fun they had ....It was nice because the moms got to know one another, relaxed while kids did storytime and craft, and the kids played together well in a different setting other than school. We had fun!!! Clean up was simple and we opened my sons gifts long after everyone left. A lovely time for all....