"Under the Sea" Birthday Party
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Little Jo has always loved Disney's The Little Mermaid and Finding Nemo. She's also fascinated by aquariums and loves going to the beach, so it should have come as no surprise to me that she wanted an ocean-themed birthday party this year. However, she was very specific that it would not involve Ariel or Nemo. She wanted ocean animals and plenty of them!
We've already shown you a few of the things we did for the party: the jellyfish banner, the fishing net party favors and the oh-so-amazing oyster cake. Let me now show you how all of those elements came together in an underwater adventure party that even Ariel would have coveted.
First, we transformed one wall of our living room into an ocean! We covered the wall with giant ocean backdrops and decorated it with lots of fish cutouts.
Then we added some twinkle lights behind the backdrop, right in the middle, and centered the cake table on the wall. The lights were McGeeky's idea, and it was a great one. It really looked like the sun filtering through the water, and it was the best touch ever.
One of the snacks I placed on the table was mini fish bowls. I found some inexpensive, glass fish bowls at the dollar store and filled them with blue Jell-O and gummy fish. (One tip here — make the Jell-O out of half blue and half clear so that it isn't too dark. The first time I did it with all blue, you couldn't even see the animals floating inside.)
Chica made dolphin cupcake picks with her Silhouette SD when she made the jellyfish banner (download her .studio file to make your own). We simply taped two dolphin shapes together with a toothpick in the middle. Easy as pie!
I also made chocolate lollipops shaped like sea animals, using a Wilton Sea Creatures candy mold. But instead of making them solid chocolate, I put a surprise inside! I first coated the inside with white chocolate, then added some "cake ball" filling to the middle. I finished it off by filling the mold with additional chocolate and letting it set.
Remember the fishing net party favors I assembled? Well, we used them for a party game where the kids had to to catch hidden sea animal eggs filled with candy. They loved it!
Little Jo really loved the oyster cake Chica made for her...
...and was especially delighted by the hidden necklace inside the white chocolate pearl!
24 comments so far:
Love the cake and decorations! A question about the floating gummy fish in blue jello: do you have to wait until the jello is semi-firm, then place the gummy candy in and continue chilling, or do you put them in from the beginning? Thanks!
The Outlaw Mom
You guessed it, Outlaw Mom. Jo waited until the Jell-o was halfway set and then inserted the fish.
Our Vacation Bible School theme this year is "Under the sea: Diving into God's love" I'm thinking about taking your party decorations and adapting them for our platform. Thanks for the inspiration!
Thanks, Chica! Will be trying this for my son's pirate birthday party next weekend!
Hello, I love the way you decorated for this party. Do you remember where you got the backdrop from? Thanks.
Hi. I really like the backdrop, could you be
able to tell me where I can get this too please? Thank you! Cheers
Athena, I used an Ocean Blue Room Roll that I found at Shindigz.
Wow. Thanks Chica and Jo for sharing a lot of tips and crafts especially for parties and for gift ideas! You're really a great help! Keep up the good work.
You're so welcome, Rhobie!
I love this one as much as the Princess Peach one!
Love your ideas! A question about the jello in the fishbowls. You say to use half clear? Do you mean half box of blue jello and then half box of plain gelatin?
HI Rita! Jo used equal parts of blue Jell-O and have plain gelatin so that the blue wasn't as concentrated.
Thank you!
Hi Chica and Jo,
My sister and I absolutely loved your ideas.We are planning a baby shower for our younger sister and the theme is "Under The Sea".My question is how many blue ocean sea rolls did you use to cover the wall.The wall itself looked pretty long.The lights behind the paper was absolutely magical!
Hi Makella! I used two rolls of the ocean backdrop to cover my wall, going left to right, with one on the bottom half of the wall and the other on the top half. You may need more or less depending on how big your wall is. Check the measurements of the rolls you buy to see how much you'll need. And yes, the lights looked really magical! I have to give credit to McGeeky for coming up with that brilliant idea!
What fantastic ideas! I love the fishbowls! Thanks
Fabulous decorations!! Trying to create the similar theme for my son's birthday. Where did you get the fish cutouts from? I have a very big wall to cover and looking for inexpensive way to cover it with sea decorations.
Nedhelp, you can find the cutouts I used by searching for "sea life cutouts" at Shindigz. You might also like the sea life classroom cutouts over on Oriental Trading.
Hi! How did you hang the fish?!
Rosa, the fish were all stuck to the wall with tape.
How did you do the lights behind the ocean blue roll? Having a bubble guppies themed party and we have the roll already but my hubby thinks it would be a fire hazard to use mini net lights!
Christina, we hung a set of twinkling Christmas tree lights behind the plastic backdrop.
I LOVE what you did here! Can you tell me how you got the blow up dolphin to stick to the wall? I thought about tape but I think mine will not stay up as it is too heavy. Thank you for sharing!
Karen, because we stuck the dolphins onto plastic sheeting, we didn't have to worry about damaging the painted wall, so we were able to use duct tape to hold them in place.