Daughter Wants a Mermaid Birthday Party

We did a Hawaiian theme and created a fishing game, using these colorful goldfish. I bought these fish, added a little washer, to the fish (just slipped it through the tail - bought the washers from a hardware store), and created fishing poles using a 1" horseshoe magnet (also found at Oriental Trading) jute or firmer yarn and chopsticks (be careful that you don't twist the chopstick ropes) Oriental trading has soooo many cool fish/ocean items. They even have ring lollipops, shaped like fish.

Kids loved the game - about 6 kids can fish at one time, maybe more depending on the size of your bowl/container, etc...It can be a race, it can be "find the special one" it can be teamwork, etc....

Fish wind socks are fun and easy to make, necklaces, gluing small pearls and shells to picture frames. All these are easy crafts.

Also, I made orange fish jello jigglers then made light blue jello, filled 1/2 of my clear cup, w/ jello, let it congeal, added one jello jiggler, then filled the rest of the cup with jello.

Swedish fish are cool as are the little fish crackers - but look for the package where they have the colorful fish crackers. Very pretty.

Have fun.

I had a mermaid party for my daughter's 5th birthday and it was a big hit!
For an opening craft, we made foam fish/bead necklaces (I think I got them from Oriental Trading) but you could find colorful beads in assorted shapes at Michael's. We played a version of a traditional "cake walk" but used different colored sea shells instead of numbers on the floor (cut from colored paper). When the music stops, choose one of the colors as the "winner" and that girl can choose a prize. Keep playing until everyone wins. We also "fished" in balloon pond. Make fishing poles out of wrapping paper tubes, string and a magnet. Attach paper clips to brightly colored paper fish and bury them under a ton of blue balloons (if you have a kiddie pool, you could contain them there). Have the kids fish to see who gets the most fish. Pin the tail on the mermaid, any kind of bucket toss game, hokey pokey and limbo are also great games for this age. For decorations, I printed out tons of fish and mermaids from free online clip-art and colored them with markers on both sides. Laminate them if you have a laminator then cut them out. We hung them from the ceiling and all around the house to create an underwater feeling. We also made a "backdrop" hung in front of the fireplace with a blue table cloth, more fish, mermaids, and some paper seaweed. My mother in law sewed a mermaid tail for the kids to wear and each got their picture taken in front of the backdrop. Have fun with the party ... your daughter will have a great time with whatever you come up with!

Potterybarn kids has really cute mermaid decorations.

check Amazon.com for a book called Mermaid Cookbook by Barbara Berry. Recipes include Paradise Pineapple Fruit Dip, Sea Foam Floats, Treasure Island Trail Mix, Goldfish Gorp, Mermaid Hair Salad, Sea Turtle Cookies, Little Luau Cakes, Water Fairy Ice Pops.

Making jewelry with seashells might be alot of fun. I would check out Oriental Trading. My most recent catalog had a kit to make 12 bracelets that I think was around $8.

Good luck-this sounds like a lot of fun!

My daughter had a mermaid party last year but there were not any other children just adult family members, so we didn't do crafts or activities but i thought i would let you know, party city, factory card outlet, and walmart all carry the disney princess party decorations but not just mermaid herself. But we got a mermaid only cake made at walmart that was really cool and only cost $20.00. I also let her dress up in a mermaid dress up outfit with the crown and everything she got for gifts was mermaid. She fot mermaid colorbooks ans a mermaid barbie and all kinds of other mermaid stuff. She loved it.