Under Sea Party
My daughter's birthday is in January and my son's birthday is in March. We split the difference and have a joint party in February. I do this for a few reasons, namely that I want to put a lot of effort into ONE party and one party ONLY. So far the kids have not complained and they rather seem to enjoy it. We have done a few different themes so far including, The Princess and the Pea, Arabian Nights, and the current theme of Under Sea.
One of the things I love to do most with our parties is a collaborative art wall. This has been a huge hit during both the Arabian Night party and this year's party. (We did not have one for the Princess and Pea party.) I'm pretty sure, I'll find a way to incorporate this idea every year as the kids and adults LOVE IT!
I started by taping large bulletin board construction paper to the wall. I then put some tinsel down the sides for a little pop and stage setting action. Next, I used cardboard to create very basic coral shapes for everyone to color in with Kwix sticks. I also created a template with starfish, jellyfish and some regular ole fish. We traced the template on to card stock to create lots of under sea creatures for the wall. Add googly eyes, poms, and LOADS of (wine) color and you have a super fun wall!!
This was our wall from last year's Arabian Night theme:
I used the same basic idea here: Cardboard taped to the wall and Kwix sticks. (Throw in a little bit of lights and stars and BAM! A pretty cityscape emerges.) I also made a Magic Carpet cake, a magic carpet craft and a Cardboard Camel named Herman! Find more info here and here!
For this year's theme, in addition to the various fish crafts, I made a starfish cake!
This bad boy had a metric ton of icing. The recipe was very simple. It was just a vanilla cake with butter cream. I added marshmallows and sprinkles to create the starfish design. Overall, I liked the design pretty well! The kiddos sure seemed to like it too. :)
A pre-collaboration pic!
After the wall was fairly well drawn on, I brought out the photo props!
And of course, there was eating... We had a nacho bar with all the fixin's, whole fruit margaritas and Swedish fish. Because Swedish fish. After the sugar high set in and the Kidz Bop mosh pit ensued, I believe the kiddos were finally worn out. Another wild February party on the books.
