The secret ingredient to a successful Mermaid party
Just add water
Amidst the wettest springtime our kids have ever seen, what could be more appropriate for a birthday party theme than ‘Mermaids’? Especially as this time last year we were all sporting sunburns from a scorching Halloween. But this year was looking less like It’s Sunny in Philidelphia and more like Waterworld.
Half the state in flood and chaotic winds that would rip the toupé off a Trump’s behind, our mermaid party looked as beached as a bloated whale. But come hell or ‘literal’ high-water, we would make it work one way or another.
And before we could say ‘we’re gonna need a bigger boat’, the sun raised it’s weary head and rained sunshine down upon us. For two and a half hours, our backyard echoed with the siren songs of mermaid squeals of sheer delight and laughter.
Mermaid Games
Every good party deserves a ‘hero’ element. For our mermaid party, our hero was a giant inflatable water slide the kids got last Christmas. This breathing monstrosity was an absolute mermaid playground.
A 10-foot high inflatable slide with a bucket that tips water over it, that shot our mermaids down its slippery slope. An inflatable water cannon, when hitting its target, results in mermaid squeals of Darryl Hannah proportions.
The whole thing is housed within a 12-inch high wading pool. Not enough to swim in, but enough to get your flippers wet. We were hard pressed to get the girls out of it for the entirety of the whole party, but that shouldn’t be surprising as mermaids need to keep hydrated.
Other games we had were equally simple, yet effective.
- Pin the tail on the mermaid. (We made a point of sticking the mermaid picture behind the glass window. The girls couldn’t feel where they think their tails should go and had to stick it onto the glass itself).
- A feast of bubble wands.
- Chalk to draw on the ground and trees.
- Mermaid piñata.
- Oversized outdoor games: Jenga, Connect 4 and pickup sticks; stationed around the yard on different picnic rugs where the girls could divide and conquer.
- A fishing station comprised of a toddler pool filled with water and plastic Finding Nemo characters, along with 6 plastic rods with magnets on the end. Something that actually got a lot more use than we were expecting.
We finished the whole thing off with a bang. A group photo with a couple of hand-held biodegradable confetti cannons to give the party the big finish it deserved.
Looks a bit fishy
To compliment our mermaid party, we enlisted the help of Sunrise Hire who supplied us with the loveliest mermaid party backdrops we’ve ever seen. They specialise in character cutouts and freestanding backdrops and the mermaid ones we chose really helped set the scene.
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