Dolphins Going to School
Sea theme birthday parties are a great opportunity to explore your creative side and are a favorite theme with children. With a little planning, you will be able to immerse all your guests in an underwater playground that will make the celebration that much more enjoyable. Does this Spark an idea?
Transform the Room
Turn the party room into an aquarium. Instead of placing random decorations in your party room, plan on making the whole room an aquarium. Clear the room of unessential furniture. Exchange light bulbs with blue- and green-tinted bulbs. Take an overhead lamp and aim a fan at it so it gives the sense of moving water. A blue or green lava lamp will work too. Place a blue sheet over the couch and chairs. Use green Easter grass as algae along the walls. Hang blue and green algae streamers from the ceiling and curtain rods.
Give your ocean some sound. Purchase a CD of ocean audio clips such as lapping waves and bubbles. Turn on the television next and insert a DVD of underwater video clips or the "Finding Nemo" movie. Download a series of screen savers that display a coral reef habitat if you have a computer in the room.
Insert Sea Life
Start with the bottom feeders first. Peeking out from the Easter grass, place toy crabs, lobsters and sea shells. Starfish can be made from construction paper and taped to the walls. Maybe you can make a flying gurnard too. Place craft store eyes on a cucumber and tell everyone it's a sea cucumber. Reef residents like angel, lion and trigger fish can also be cut out and taped to the walls.
Hang top feeders from your ceiling. Dolphin, whale or shark inflatable pool toys are perfect and if they fall from the ceiling no one gets hurt. Buy green and blue balloons, add eight streamers with tape, draw some eyes and you have an octopus family. Head to the pet store and buy a few goldfish (an early birthday present) and place them strategically around the room. A submarine might happen to be keeping watch in the corner.
Decorate with Food
Feed your guests fish food. Choose snacks like goldfish crackers, fish sticks or gummy fish. Meals might include shell pasta or sandwiches shaped like a fish with a cookie cutter. Octopus hot dogs can be made by slicing up one half of a hot dog into eight sections before cooking. Cakes can be shaped like a fish or you can draw a fish on top with a message using a write-gel tube.
Don't serve your guests sea water to drink. Instead, purchase some blue sports drink or Kool-Aid. For extra fun you can make ice cubes the night before the party and place gummy fish in each one. And a little ginger ale to alter the taste and rename your drink Sea Creature Soda.
Tags: your guests, blue green, Easter grass, fish with, from ceiling, gummy fish, like fish