Ariel Birthday Party Ideas - Little Mermaid Theme

Invite the friends of your child to come to a very special Ariel birthday party.

It will be a great underwater adventure, and the kids may never want to come up for air!

Resources:

Invitations

To start off Little Mermaid party fun, create "message-in-a-bottle" invites. Pour some sand into the bottles and add several miniature sea shells. Next, write your Ariel birthday party details on cream-colored paper and burn the edges for an old look. Then roll the invites, tie and stuff them into the bottles. The invitations can say "A message in a bottle for (guest's name). (Birthday child) invites you to her Ariel Birthday Party!"

Decorations

For Little Mermaid party decorations, use such colors as purple, turquoise, silver, pink and shades of blue. Use as many balloons and streamers in those colors as you can. Play Little Mermaid theme music in the background.

Download and print images of Little Mermaid characters (e.g., Ariel, Sebastian, Flounder, King Triton, Prince Eric, Ursula, etc.). Enlarge and laminate the images, and put them on the fence. Attach some cutout fish shapes and streamers.

Enlist the birthday child to draw various sea animals on the driveway all the way leading to the front door. Put up a large banner that says "Welcome to (your child's name) Ariel Birthday Party!"

Set a blown up palm tree in the yard, and hang plastic fish on strings from tree branches. Drape a fish net over the backyard fence. Then attach plastic and paper fish. Rent bubble machine, and place it in the yard to create "sea bubbles."

Cover the lights in the room with blue cellophane paper, which will give the party "under the ocean" feeling. Spread out stuffed sea animals around the room. Have Mylar fish and dolphin balloons free-floating in the area, and have lots of blue latex balloons on the floor to create "ocean atmosphere."

Drape streamers from the ceiling in blue, light blue and teal colors, and throw in green streamers for seaweed. Attach some construction paper fish cutouts to several streamers to look like they are swimming. After the streamers are draped, turn on the ceiling fan on Low to simulate the "waves" in the ocean! The streamers should dangle low enough so people could feel like they are walking through the water.

Set up a treasure chest in your Ariel birthday party area. If you don't have anything resembling a treasure chest, here's how to make one...Paint the wooden box inside and out with gold acrylic paint. Let it dry. Cover the top with a thin layer of crafts glue. Then place beads, shells, and other decorations on top of the glue. Sprinkle the rest with gold glitter.

Cut two pieces of gold braid trim to go around the box lid and bottom. Glue them in place. Add decorative lines on box sides with glitter paint pens. Let the glue and paint dry. Fill the box with jewels to look like valuable treasure.

Hang Little Mermaid posters on the walls. Hand-draw sea animals to fill the wall space, or purchase a sea life mural (available from a party store).

Cover your Ariel birthday party table with a theme cloth. Cut out images of Ariel, laminate them, and put them for placemats. For a centerpiece, place a large glass fish bowl with a couple of goldfish swimming around. Tie helium balloons to the backs of the chairs. Hang a personalized "Happy Birthday" banner nearby.

Guest Arrival and Introductory Activities

*Crown Crafting: Before Ariel birthday party, cut out 5-inch-high crowns out of poster board.

As an icebreaker activity, invite the kids to decorate their crowns using glitter, confetti, stickers, water-based markers or crayons and glue sticks. Size each crown by wrapping it around the child's head and stapling the ends together.

*Coloring Books: Invite your party guests to color the pages of activity books while waiting for others to arrive.

*Treasure Chest Craft: This activity you can perform before the party or at the beginning of the party to pique your young guests' curiosity.

To make the treasure chest, cover the inside and outside of small Styrofoam cooler with aluminum foil. Glue two strips of black construction paper vertically on the side of the treasure chest, to simulate straps.

Fill the chest with a mixture of uncooked pasta, cooked spinach linguine "seaweed", costume jewelry, plastic ocean creatures, chocolate coins, etc.

Favors

For Little Mermaid party favors, hand out such items as heart-shaped buckets, sea shells, lip gloss, plush fish, mini photo frames, faux-pearl necklaces, Little Mermaid sticker sheets, blowouts, glitter bracelets and gem rings.

Ariel Birthday Party Games

*Pin the Flower on Ariel: Hang Little Mermaid poster to the wall. Prepare a hibiscus paper flower for each guest before Ariel birthday party. Put double-sided tape on each flower.

At game time, blindfold the kids, spin them around and get them to pin their flowers on Ariel's hair. Have prizes for every single player.

*Do the Limbo: Play Little Mermaid soundtrack CD, and get your Ariel birthday party guests to go under a "limbo stick." Lower the stick every round. The players have to "clear" the stick to stay in the game.

*Feed the Shark: Draw a large shark's mouth on heavy poster board. Next, tape it to the side of the open cardboard box. Cut out the mouth. At game time, invite the kids to toss bean bags, tennis balls, etc. into the shark's mouth for points.

*Sea Monster: Enlist an adult helper ("Sea Monster") to assist with this Little Mermaid party activity. (It's best if you play this game outside.)

Draw lines (or put a masking tape) on both sides of the playing area (about 50 feet apart). Sea Monster stands behind one line, and the kids stand behind the other. The game starts with the kids yelling "Sea monster, Sea monster, are you hungry?" The Sea Monster should reply "No, come closer!" Then the kids take about 5-8 steps toward the Sea Monster.

The play continues in this manner until the kids get near the Sea Monster. Then, when asked if he is hungry, the Sea Monster replies "Yes", at which point children will start running back toward their "home" line. Sea Monster tries to catch others to become sea monsters. Continue playing until there is only one child remains "free."

*Treasure Hunt: For this Ariel birthday party game, you'll need a treasure chest (see Guest Arrival & Introductory Activities).

To set up a hunt, collect several beach items - a swim mask, a shell, a flip-flop, and so on. On small paper pieces, draw a picture showing the location of each item and of the treasure chest. (Hide the treasure chest in a spot where children will be able to gather easily.)

For example, put the picture of the chest inside the shell, and hide it. Tape the picture of the shell inside the flip-flop, and so on, until you've hidden all but one clue. Provide the kids with remaining picture and instruct them to follow the clues in order. When the treasure chest is found, each kid gets a turn to reach into it and fish for one or two treasures.

*Skin the Eel: First, line up all the kids single file. Each child bends forward and places his right hand back through his legs and with his left hand grasps the right hand of the player in front of him. The person at the back of the line lies down on her back while everyone else walks backward over her.

The next player lies down, then the next, until everyone is on their back. The last player to lie down gets up and walks forward, pulling the rest of the line with him, until all are standing and still holding hands.

*Mermaid Race: First, outfit each child with a "mermaid tail" by having him or her step into a heavy-duty drawstring bag. Tie the bag loosely around the kid's waist, then secure it in place with a belt or duct tape.

Wrap a second strip of duct tape around the knees to create a fin. Next, lay the children down on their bellies on one side of the room. Scatter the crowns around on the other side of the room. On the command "Go", children squirm and flap their way to the other side, don their crowns, and race back.

*Little Mermaid Freeze Dance: Play "Under the Sea" song from the Little Mermaid movie, and invite the kids to dance to the music. When the music stops, whoever is still moving - goes out of the game.

*Ursula's Garden: In this Ariel birthday party game, children get to be Ursula and her evil eels Flotsam and Jetsam. First, pick the kids to play Ursula and the eels. When the helper yells "Swim", Ursula and her partners try to catch the other players.

Those who get caught, go to a designated area labeled "Ursula's Garden" where they turn into sad little creatures. They must then stand perfectly still, with legs straddled, until freed by other players. (Te be rescued, one of their friends needs to crawl through their legs.)

Ariel Birthday Cakes:

*King Triton's Castle Cones: For this Ariel birthday party cake recipe, you'll need cake mix, ice cream cones (with flat bottoms), frosting, blue food coloring, gummy fish, sprinkles, candy shells, etc.

Preheat oven to 350�F. Prepare cake batter and fill cones 1/3 full. Place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool. Add a few drops of food coloring to icing, mix and add scoops to tops of cones. Decorate with sprinkles, gummy fish and candy shells.

*Mermaid Cake: Bake a regular sheet cake. Place a picture of Ariel on the cake, and then carve around the image with a knife. Next, ice each section and pipe it for detail.

Ariel Birthday Party Food Ideas:

*Sebastian's Sea Shell Surprise: For this Ariel birthday party recipe, you'll need 16 oz of sea shell pasta, 2 eggs, 2 cups of milk, 2 tbsp of melted butter, 2 1/2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese, salt & pepper to taste.

Boil pasta for 5 minutes in a large pot of salted water until partially cooked. Drain and place in a lightly greased 2-quart baking dish. Whisk eggs and milk together. Add the shredded cheese and melted butter to egg mixture, and mix well. Pour over pasta and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Bake uncovered at 350�F for 30-40 minutes, or until top is brown. Cover with foil for the last 10 minutes of baking to prevent scorching.

*"Seanut" Butter & Jelly Fish: Create a bunch of peanut butter & jelly sandwiches. Next, cut them into fish shapes using cookie cutters or butter knife.

*Flounder's Fish Bowl: Prepare blue Jell-O� according to package directions. Pour into a clear bowl and refrigerate. As Jell-O thickens (after about 1 hour), insert gummy fish into it and chill awhile longer. Serve in cups or small bowls.

*Hotdog Octopuses: Cut hotdogs in half across and cut each end in 'X' pattern - so there are 4 legs on each end of a hotdog.

*Dole� Pineapple Fish (available in a can)
*Sunken Treasure Nuggets (cheese balls)
*Tuna Salad
*Gold Fish Crackers
*Ariel Frosted Cookies (available at some online stores)
*Gummy Sharks
*Vanilla Ice Cream

Ariel Birthday Party Drink Ideas:

*Sea Slushies: For this Ariel birthday party drink, you'll need 4 cups of blue sports drink, 4 large scoops of vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt and 4 cups of ice. Combine all the ingredients in a blender. (Split in portions to avoid overflow.) Whirl until smooth and serve in tall glasses. Add cocktail umbrellas for a special touch.

*Deep Blue Sea Juice: Fill glasses with blue punch and place them in front of each guest. Add some seaweed dust (a few Pop Rock� candies) to each glass. Watch it crackle and pop!