7002

Mermaid / Pirate -4yr- Ocean in a Bottle Craft

August 2003

Christina in Philadelphia, PA USA

Special Mention

My daughter is at such a magical age and for her 4th  birthday we decided to do have a Mermaid / Pirate party.  

THE INVITATIONS sent out were messages in a bottle. I stained white paper with tea bags, I used my computer and  added the invitation message, pictures of Ariel, treasure and a treasure map to our house. I then rolled the invitations up and slid them into plastic bottles that contained sand and tiny colored sea shells(all purchased craft store). I placed the bottles, accompanied by toy telescopes (purchased at party express), in a box filled with shredded blue paper (to simulate water). The invitations read "Swim or Sail over to Mermaid Megan's Under the Sea Birthday Party! Mermaid Megan is turning Four! She needs shipmates to swab the deck, walk the plank and mermaids to hunt for long lost pirates treasure. So join us for a swashbuckling, fin splashing birthday at sea. Sea Castle (address), We set sait (date), so dock your ship at (time).  

THE DECORATIONS :In advance me and my daughter prepared the decorations for the party. I had my daughter lay down on 4 foot by 5 foot sheets of poster / card board. I traced her body twice. She really thought that was silly. I then used her outline to paint a mermaid & pirate in her size. I cut out wholes where the face would go so guests could pop there heads through for a photo. I also painted a bean bag toss Octopus and Ariel & friends on same large poster board to use as  decorations. 

I also made a pirate ship out of the same 4 x5 poster board using the entire board for the ship, then we painted paper towl & wrapping paper  tubes black to make polls, I cut sails out of white paper and put slits into them so I could slide them over the tubs. I attached the tubs to the back of the ship, and decorated the ship & sails with sculls and hung a small ancor made from construction paper from the ship  to give it a 3d effect. We also made lots of sea creatures, sea plants, Sabastian & flounder, pirate ship stearing wheels and seashells from construction paper together.

The day of the party we taped fish with air bubbles coming out there mouths all over the walls all over the house. We put sea plants and seashells on the bottom of the walls so simulate the bottom of the ocean. Then we criss crossed blue & green streamers on the ceiling and hung fish on them so they would hang down. The I scattered blue & green ballons on the floor and purchased helium filled balloons to scatter around the ceiling. The posters were placed in different portions of the house as well. We carried this theme in everyroom of the house.

I purchased 4 glass bubble bowls, placed blue & puple crystal sea shells & fish inside(purchased at pet store), filled  the bowls  with water & placed inexpensive live gold fish in them. I then  placed floating flowers on top of them. I placed the fish bowls in a window boxes and on my breakfast nook dividing two rooms. The children enjoyed watching the fish swim around. When the house was finished it was truly magical.  

FOOD: The cake was a mermaid that I made at home(idea from disney family website). Snacks were goldfish crackers, blue jello with penny fish swimming inside, & cheese with pirate sword tooth picks and deviled eggs with sails in them.  The children eat P& J & hot dogs on little mermaid party wear.Upon arrival the boys received pirate hats or bandana's and eye patches the girls received Ariel crowns and neclaces. My daugher wore a little mermaid play costume that she had.  

GAMES that were played were floating ships (the kids bounced ballons in the air not letting them drop), musical fish, an Ariel piniata  &  pin the x on the map(which I made). I hide gold coins & jewled rings in my daughters sand box (my daughter has pink sand purchased from walmart) and the kids took turns digging for treasure. I also gave the kids some free time and they played in our yard. We have a castle so I made a banner with swimming fish and it read "Mermaid Megans Sea Castle".  

As a craft we made ocean bottles using blue colored water, cooking oil, fish & sea creature confettie. We also had face painting & balloon sculpting. After each child had there face painted I had them put there head through the Mermaid or Pirate poster and I took a poloroid picture of them so they could take home with them.  As party favors I purchased clear goodie bags and decorated them with Little Mermaid stickers.The bags contained a seashell jewlery box's &  seashell & fish bead neclace crafts. (purchased in bulk and then seperated down into snack zip lock bags.

All the children enjoyed themselves very much and talk about how neat the house looked and how much fun they had. It really didn't cost much at all since it was done over a long period of time and since we made a lot of the stuff, me and my daughter enjoyed our time together making the decorations. They are only little once so let there imaginations run wild and have fun with it. The party was a hit. All the kids had a great time playing games and using there imagination.

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