Kids Beach Birthday Party Ideas

Beach birthday party is one of the most popular summer party themes. When it's hot out, you should try this one out!

I have included beach party ideas here for having your party at your house, but with minor changes (e.g., decorations) - you can have your party at the beach.

Resources:

Invitations

For kids' beach party invitations, you can write all your party details on inexpensive inflatable beach balls with permanent markers. Ask everyone to bring their beach bags with bathing suits, towels, beach chairs, and sunscreen.

Then, mail (or drop off) the balls deflated to your beach birthday party guests. They will have to inflate the balls to read the invitations.

Take labels off clear 20 oz water bottles, and put some sand inside. Next, add several small seashells and some glitter. Then print off your invitations on gold paper. Lastly, roll the invitations into scrolls, tie them with raffia, and insert them into the bottles. Now you have "message-in-a-bottle" invitations - very cool!

Decorations

For kids' beach party decorations you can use a lot of different colors, but remember the brighter the colors - the better! Play some summer music (e.g., Beach Boys) in the background.

Make a big smiling sun from yellow poster board and post it on the front door. Hang bathing suits of many different colors on a line strung outdoors. Create a "beach" in the backyard by filling the sandbox with beach toys. Set up a picnic table outside.

Make an ocean by cutting wave shapes out of blue construction paper and hanging them on the fence. Get the sprinklers going, and arrange several plastic kiddy pools. Have one plastic pool filled with sand and sand toys (buckets, shovels, molds, etc.), the other one - with water, and the last one - with water balloons. Cut out brightly colored construction paper fish in various sizes and hang them around the yard.

Fill your beach birthday party area with beach umbrellas and chairs. Organize a fire pit for your mini bonfire (keep fire under adult supervision at all times). Have diving masks, flippers, and beach inflatables in the area including balls, rings, toys, etc.

Fill a plastic pool with ice and soft drinks. Blow up helium balloons in light green, yellow, turquoise, and light blue colors. Hang fishnets on the fence and over the picnic table.

Use a colorful beach towel for the beach birthday party tablecloth. For the centerpiece, have a sand pail, shovel, and sea shells. A fish bowl with live fish adds a fun touch. Use some of the fish cutouts for place mats.

Guest Arrival and Introductory Activities

*Guess How Many: Fill a jar with multi-colored Lifesavers candy with just a few Pepp-O-Mint (white candy) in a jar. Ask your beach birthday party guests to guess how many white lifesavers are in a jar. The closest guess wins the prize (e.g. jar full of candy).

*Beach Coloring Pages: Have your young guests color in beach coloring pages with crayons and pencils as they wait for others to arrive.

*Design a T-Shirt: Invite children to print seashell designs on white T-shirts or tank tops. Put newspaper inside T-shirts to prevent bleed-through. Next, pour paint on to the sponge. Press the outside of the seashell into a paint and then onto a shirt. Repeat the process experimenting with various colors.

Favors

For kids' beach party favors, give out shovels, inexpensive sunglasses, sunscreen, sun visors, cool beach towels and hats.

You can also have such popular beach birthday party favors as squirt guns, colorful beads, candy necklaces and various stickers.

Beach Birthday Party Games

*Bucket Brigade: Divide the group into two teams and line them up in two parallel rows. Give the first players on each team a bucket. Set up a tub of water next to each of the first players in line and an empty tub at the end of each line.

On the command "Go!" the first players will dip their buckets into the tubs of water and pass the buckets down the row of players. The last player in line then dumps the water into an empty tub and passes the bucket back. The first team to empty the full tub wins the game.

*Keep It Dry: Turn on as many sprinklers as possible for this beach birthday party game. Line up two teams on one side of the yard and give each kid a sheet of colored tissue paper. The players must run through the sprinklers while trying not to get their paper wet. The team with the most dry papers wins the game.

*Splash Maker: This is a version of Duck, Duck, Goose that's played with water. Have the kids sit in a circle. Give one player a cup of water and have him or her walk around the outside of the circle.

After a few moments, the player will dump the water on one of the sitting players, then run around the outside and try to get back to the open space before the wet player catches him or her.

*Ocean in a Bottle: Let beach birthday party guests make an Ocean in a Bottle by filling a clear plastic pop bottle with water. Next, they add blue food coloring and some metal confetti into the bottle. Lastly, the kids seal the lid with glue.

*Sinking Ship: Divide the players into two teams and place them in two lines. Give the first players on each team a pie plate full of water. Players must pass the pie plate over their heads to the player behind them until the pie plate reaches the end of the line. The team with the most water left in the pie plate - wins.

*Tug-of-Water War: Fill a kiddy pool with water. Divide the kids into two teams and place each team on opposite sides of the kiddy pool. Place a rope between the teams for a tug-of-war. Then have them try to pull one another into the water.

*Water Bomb Toss: Divide your beach birthday party group into pairs and have them stand about two feet form their partner. Give one of the two kids a water balloon. On the command "Go!" the balloon holders will toss the balloons to their partners.

If any pair breaks their balloon, they are out of the game. The rest of the players take one step back to increase the distance between the pairs, then they toss the balloons again. Keep increasing the distance and tossing the balloons until only one pair of players is left.

*Do the Limbo: Have a Limbo Contest and see how low they can go. Hold a broomstick or bamboo stick four feet above the ground and have the players try to duck under it by bending backwards. Play some beach birthday party music during this contest. After everyone has had a turn going under the stick, lower it half a foot and go again. Keep playing until only one player remains.

*Beach Hunt: Send your beach birthday party guests on a scavenger hunt. Write your clues, roll paper into scrolls, and put them into clear plastic bottles. Hide the bottles in your party area. At party time, have children read the clues to find the bottles and the items for the scavenger hunt!

Food and Drink

Serve your beach birthday party food in plastic sand pails and let the kids eat with plastic shovels.

Beach Birthday Cakes:

*Sunshine Cake: Bake one round cake and six cupcakes. Set the cupcakes around the outside of the round cake to make rays. Tint white frosting with yellow food coloring, and frost the cakes. Give the sun a face using decorator frosting tubes.

*Beach Cake: Bake a sheet cake according to package directions. Use vanilla wafer cookies for sand. Make ocean with blue Jell-O poured into a kidney shaped hole (cut the hole beforehand). Use sticks of gum for beach towels and surfboards. Make a volleyball net out of flat taffy (held up with pretzel sticks) and sand pails out of gumdrops.

Around the outside of the cake, you can put gummy fish, colored round sprinkles, and green straw candy for sea weed.

*Sand Castle Cake: Prepare two sheet cakes. Use one for the base of the cake, and use another cake to cut squares from to use for the towers.

Put the tower in each corner of the first cake, topping it off with an upside down sugar ice cream cone. Next, frost the whole cake, and then cover it with crushed vanilla wafers (for "sand").

Need more cake ideas? Take a look at this awesome beach cake.

Beach Birthday Party Food Ideas:

*Seashore Snacks: For a great kids' beach party snack idea, fill a large bag with one cup each of dry chow mien noodles ("seaweed"), pretzel sticks ("driftwood"), roasted peanuts ("beach pebbles"), Cheerios ("life preservers"), and cheddar goldfish crackers.

For sweetness, and 1/2 cup of dried pineapple slices (cut into bite-size wedges) and 1 cup of raisins. Fold over the top of "snack bag" and shake well to mix.

*Tuna Boats: Slice green peppers in half and fill with a tuna, relish, and mayo mixture. Add a cheese triangle for a sail.

*Fruit Kebabs: Cut the tropical fruits - such as bananas, pineapple, and so on - and put them onto skewers.

Beach Birthday Party Drink Ideas:

*"Rad" Slushies: Freeze lemonade, then whirl it in the blender and pour it into paper cups. Give the kids small spoons to eat the slushies with.

*"Surfing" Smoothies