This very intimate birthday party for a five year old girl needed to pack a lot of punch on a small scale.  The beach was the perfect backdrop but every little detail had to count since we didn’t require a lot of area for our setup with only 8 little Mermaid guests.  We took advantage of the guest count by splurging on amazing party favors and creating some fun crafted accents.

One of those accents were the teacups themselves.  A trip to the thrift store resulted in a set of 8 porcelain cups.  A coat of plaster of Paris and an application of crushed seashells yielded adorable vessels for the Mermaid “tea”.  The tea itself was one of those silly little details that was thought about, mulled over, tossed around but could not be nailed down.  It really all came down to the COLOR of the tea (because of course these things are of utmost importance to five year old girls!).  Finally I made the decision FOR our little Mermaid (sort of).  I purchased Invisible Kool-Aid and told her she could wait until just before the party to let me know what color tea Mermaids like to drink.  Armed with every variety of food coloring under the sun (even the fluorescents!) the obvious choice ended up being blue (”just like the ocean“…of course!).   

The over-sized strawberry cupcakes were topped with strawberry cream cheese frosting and candy coated chocolate seashells and served on large scallop shells embellished with a beaded edging. 

As the Mermaids splashed in the waves, each place at the table was set with a rolled up Mermaid Tail Towel Beach Cover-Up from Kiki’s Things.  Could you DIE over how cute they are???  They can be worn up high under the arms as a full body cover-up or around the waist more like a skirt cover-up.  Each tail has a loop to wear around the wrist, as well as hook-and-eye to “bustle” it so it doesn’t get tripped over!  She even gave us a discount for purchasing several at one time.

The centerpiece was supposed to be a large fish bowl filled with several goldfish nestled amongst grass and seashells.  Sadly, as I picked up the bowl it shattered in my hand.  The fish weren’t in the bowl of water yet, so they were unharmed.  Unfortunately the same could not be said for one of my fingers…but, the show must go on, so we improvised with what we had to create a suitable centerpiece.  No one was the wiser (although for days I obsessed about the perfection that could have been…). 

The girls were also adorned with seashell necklaces, candy bracelets and big sparkly rings, befitting of a Mermaid’s treasure trove.   There was plenty of built-in entertainment as the girls splashed in the water and buried each other in the sand on one of the last beach days of the year.  It really was a precious little party.  One adorable party guest said, “I never knew I could feel like a REAL mermaid!”

**LOTS more photos from this Mermaid Tea Party, as well as other Mix Mingle Glow events can be viewed on our Facebook Fan page!  Become a fan and qualify for a chance to win a $100 gift card to Target, Crate & Barrel, Williams Sonoma and more!

Tags: , beach party, beach theme, invisible kool-aid, kiki's things, kikisthings.com, mermaid, mermaid cover up, mermaid cover-ups, mermaid party, mermaid tail, mermaid tea, mermaid tea party, mermaid tea party tails, mermaid towel, mermaid towels

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 8th, 2009 at 11:24 pm and is filed under Real Parties, decor, destin FL, events, favors, food, inspiration & ideas, parties. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.