Dolphins and Seahorses, Oh My!

Last weekend, we hosted 12 girls and family and friends for Mia's 6th Birthday Party.  Let me say that again.  Mia's SIXTH birthday party.  Six?!?!?!  I tell ya, my heart can't take much more of my babies growing up!!

I love planning birthday parties. I am an event planner at heart, so this is a great creative outlet for me. Several months ago, Mia said she wanted a dolphin/seahorse party. Of course, I jumped on the chance to make it happen! I immediately starting perusing Pinterest for ideas.  How did we ever live without Pinterest?? There are so many creative and crafty people out there willing to share ideas. I am so thankful for them.

This party was so fun and simple to put together and I did it all on a tight budget!

First, I made her invitations using Photoshop and PicMonkey. I purchased the sea animal images through Etsy for $3 and had them printed for $6 at a local print shop.









I bought all of my party supplies at Dollar Tree and Walmart. I was very lucky and hit the mother-load at Walmart. They everything in the colors I wanted and they were all $1! 

I created a "water wall" at the food table from crepe paper. 

I used the images from what I bought on Esty, blew them up and printed them for templates to cut out dolphins and seahorses out of foam paper.  We used green crepe paper to create "seaweed" and placed the dolphins and seahorses between them to give it an under the sea look.

Everyone loved our balloon net. It was so easy and made a big statement piece.  The net I purchased on Amazon. The balloons are from Walmart ($1!!).

The food was so fun and so easy! I made the labels through Word using a green frame I created on Pinterest and WordArt.  

I was so thankful I decided to go with cupcakes. They were super easy to make and made things much easier since they made the perfect single servings.

The goodie bags had little stuffed dolphins (Amazon), dolphin pencils, sea stamps, necklace and a ring pop. I had intentions of putting colorful ribbon on the goodie bags, but I completely forgot.

We had the party in our basement.  Our basement kitchen was the perfect place to set up and we had lots of room for everyone to spread out.  The kids had a blast. The weather was beautiful so they were able to play outside in the backyard and run around the house without being too cramped. 

It was over in the blink of an eye.  I have to give a huge shout out to my mom and mother-in-law who were a BIG help. This party was a team effort for sure!  My feet still have not recovered, but it was a wonderful time for all and the Birthday Girl was all smiles, which makes it all worthwhile!