Theme: Under the Sea For my daughter's third birthday, we chose an "under the sea" theme. For the invitations, I hand-painted an ocean scene on plain card stock. (I love to paint!  Scrapbooking paper would be great, too.)  The invitation text was this poem:  Celebrate this special day With us, dear friends; It's _____'s birthday. She's turning three, And soon we'll be Spending the day Under the sea. Kids bring a towel and your suit. We'll search for treasure chest to loot. On __[day]__, __[date]__ We'll have some lunch And a special treat. It starts at __[time]__, so don't be late. Call us soon, We'll save you a plate.  A "treasure map" to our house was inserted with the invitations. For party favors, I got wooden hinged boxes with rounded lids like a treasure chest, and painted out each one according to the child's favorite color or room color. Each was decorated with gemstones, and filled with chocolate coins, candy bracelets, and other treats.  The kids aged 1 to 3 enjoyed the sprinkler and wading pool out back.  There was also a "fishy" craft for them to do that was appropriate to their age. The kids aged 10 to 12 were kept busy on a treasure hunt to find their treasure chest. Each child was given a riddle or clue to find the next clue--about 10 in all.  The last clue led them to their treasure chest.   For lunch, I served BBQ beef and chicken sandwiches, shells and cheese, seaweed salad (cole slaw), blue Jell-O with gummy sharks in it, and melon.  The cake was an ocean.  The sides looked like a cross-section of the ocean, with the sand at the bottom, plants, shells, starfish, and fish.  On the top of the cake was a grey whale fashioned out of marzipan coming out of the water.  Water shooting out of his blowhole was made with cloth-covered florist wire shaped into curly cues and coated with blue piping gel.