If you’re celebrating a birthday party with an ocean, mermaid, underwater adventure theme or inviting all your guests to the nearest pool, there are tons of party ideas to add to the fun and thrill of the day!
Try out a few of these suggestions below and let us know how it goes and what you think!
DECOR
Blues and Greens! Set up your party with different shades of blue and green to add to the ‘water theme’.
A photo backdrop is always an easy way to add some themed decor to your party AND it doubles as something for your guests to do. You can make a simple one with a handful of construction paper and a blue plastic table cover (Tutorial coming soon) OR purchase one from a store (Ocean Floor Backdrop (Amazon). For added fun, have a few photo stick props (Sea Life Photo Stick Props – Oriental Trading).
If you have any bubble wands or a automatic bubble machine (Bubble Machine (Amazon)), you can set it up by the photo booth area or somewhere with some space where the kids can pop the bubbles
CRAFT TABLE
We had a few crafts for our guests to entertain themselves with before the games actually began.
- Easy Origami. There’s a few easy items that you can create from this book: Easy Origami (Amazon Link). In terms of easiest to hardest, I would say the order would be: the fish, penguin, boat, and frog, but most of the older kids were able to do all four by themselves. These craft were perfect as most kids could follow along without too much help. Many were so easy, in fact, that we ended up having quite a few of these lying around the party area 🙂
- Bracelets & Beading. We had some string, beads, and some ‘ocean’ charms for kids to make bracelets and necklaces to take home.
FOOD & DRINKS
What’s more fun than a party with yummy food?? PLAYING with your food at a party! You can always lay out your food if you’re in a time crunch, but if you’ve got a bit more time before the party, a few ‘Snack Crafts’ will bring a bit of extra smiles to your guests 🙂
- The Aquarium – Make a healthy edible Aquarium Table. Give your guests a chance to make their own ‘aquarium’. Start with a blue paper plate and let them add whatever they want. Lay out a few options and have a sample (or a picture of one) to give them ideas.
- For the ocean life:
- Goldfish is a must have 🙂
- Shredded carrots (for coral reefs, etc)
- Green Grapes
- Green Apples
- Sliced Strawberries
- Ideas for the underwater plants
- Sliced cucumber (skin on to give it some more greenery)
- Green peppers
- Celery
- Floor / Sand
- Graham Crackers (can be crushed) for sand or sea floor
- For the ocean life:
- The Hungry Sharks (Shark Snack Cup). We modeled this idea off of a shark idea from momendeavors.com (Thank you!). We opted for just drawing on the cups and having the shark fins as we thought it would be a bit easier for our little guests.
- The Shark
- Have a few blue paper cup
- Pre-cut fins
- Tape (a bit cleaner than glue 🙂 )
- Some sharpies
- The “Unfortunate” Shark Food. You can add any goodies that would fit into the shark. We had:
- Pirate Booty
- Pretzels
- The Shark
- What underwater party wouldn’t be complete without a Pirate’s Treasure Chest? (This paper one on Amazon is less than $15) Toss in a few individual pirate booty bags and you’ve got an (practically) instant decoration that feeds guests as well! You can also get the Pirate Booty box that’s a bit more decorative, though the bags are pretty small: Pirate Booty Aged White Cheddar 12ct (Amazon).
Main Course:
- You could go the ‘seafood’ route with this but if your little guests are anything like mine, they’ve got very specific menu requests. We had some regular sandwiches but cut them up using ocean shaped cookie cutters.
Dessert:
- Swedish Fish
- Blue Jello Cups (If you want to add in some extra fun, have guests create a sailboat out of the fruit from the snack table. We used apple slices for the boat and a cupcake topper for the ‘sail’ but you can also use a toothpick and let your guests design their own sail).
Drinks:
- Blue Koolaid
GAMES
We – unfortunately – did not have a pool to play around in but we did have some water fun set up outdoors. Here are a few games/stations we had:
- Water Bead Sensory Station
- We had a small tub full of water beads with some plastic sea creatures, so younger kids could “play with the ocean”. For Fun, we let each kid grow a few water beads as well. By the end of the party, they were large enough to look like water beads instead of just tiny circles.
- Grow a Sea Creature
- These are a bit small (about an inch when expanded), but the kids – especially the younger ones – were quite intrigued at watching these capsules turn into a sea creature. Grow in Water Toys (Amazon). We let each kid keep the one they added into their water cup.
- Rubber Ducks: This is similar to those carnival games where you pick a duck and get a prize. We purchased a few packs of rubber ducks and wrote down 1, 2, or 3 underneath. They got to pick the corresponding # of pieces of candy. Pack of 50 Mini Rubber Ducks (Amazon).
- Bubble Tower Race: Give each kid a mix of bubble solution, wand, and a small glass or plastic bowl. Start the timer and see who can blow the most bubbles into their bowl and create the highest tower! (Note: if you want to be the cool parent, show them a trick at the end. Fill the bowl with the bubble mixture, take a straw, and start blowing bubbles into the liquid. You’ll have a bubble tower in seconds!)
- Water Balloons & Water Soakers! Bystanders beware – you may likely get soaked if you’re in the vicinity. We had a few balloons filled with water and passed out a few water soakers.
- Slip & Slide 🙂 Lucky for us, we had enough yard space to set up a slip and slide. It’s not the same as a pool that you can dive into but was fun for the kids.
- Sprinklers 🙂 If you don’t have the water balloons or space for a full slip and slide, no worries 🙂 Just turn on the sprinklers, and they’ll love running through it!
GOODIE BAGS
If you want to keep in theme when your guests leave, sprinkle in some ocean items for their goodie bag along with any of the regular candy or hand outs you want to give out.
Each kid got a pack of goldfish and swedish fish. We also added in some ocean stickers, rubber duckies, etc. Anything they made during the party, they got to take home as well.
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you so much for checking out our party planning article. Hopefully it gave you some great ideas for your next celebration! If you did enjoy this, please let us know below or follow us on Pinterest. Also, If you haven’t already and are still looking for that perfect party theme, feel free to check out some of our other party ideas: Frolicking Fox Cubs – More Party Guides!
Happy Party Planning 🙂
