Liesl's 7th Birthday: An Under the Sea Bash!

My daughter Liesl, is animal obsessed. I mean, completely in love with animals of almost any kind. For her 7th birthday party, she told me (almost 9 months in advance, mind you) that she wanted to have a mobile aquarium to come to our house for her next birthday! Ok, I thought - well that's a tall order, but I'll see what I can do! So, I got to work and found that I could, indeed, rent a "mobile touch tank and aquarium" from The Aquarium of the Pacific. I booked the truck to come to our house, and Liesl's 'Under the Sea' party theme was born!

Color Scheme: For Liesl's Party, I wanted to make it bright - as in, fluorescent bright! I bought a TON of neon colored spray paint. I used neon orange, yellow, hot pink, and aqua as the main colors of the party. I love a brightly colored party, but this one really took the cake, so to speak! I bought lots of starfish and seashells, and plastic coral for fish tanks, and spray painted everything in bright colors to match my color scheme.

Decor: I found aqua tulle fabric that was embroidered with aqua sequins that looked like a coral reef and sea grass. I used this fabric as an overlay over top of some iridescent aqua fabric that resembled mermaid scales. I also decorated the tables with my neon-painted starfish, seashells, and coral, and added ocean animal mylar balloon bouquets to the center of the tables.

All graphic signage items that I made for the party are available in my Etsy Shop, https://www.etsy.com/shop/EmilyEntertains!

• What People Ate

  Food Buffet Table: I had fun creating some ocean-themed food for the buffet table! Seashells (shells and cheese), fish and chips (potato chips and goldfish), crab legs (carrot sticks), shark teeth and starfish (cheese wedges and star crackers), and an orange pepper octopus in a bed of hummus.

• Desserts

  Cake and Dessert Table: Liesl's cake was by far, one of my favorite elements from the party! I had the cake covered in blue marbled fondant to resemble ocean waves. Then, I added a bunch of fondant ocean items - coral, sea grass, starfish, sea urchins, etc. I loved the clamshell with the number 7 on the very top that was made by Les Pop Sweets. Other sweets - clamshell sugar cookies, starfish cookies, and white chocolate seashell lollipops - were also on the dessert table. It was like a sugary sweet under the sea world of goodness!

• Party Favors

  Party favors were clam shell favor bags from Meri Meri with personalized thank you favor tags, which are now available in my Etsy shop! Inside each bag was a bean bag ocean animal in bright colors to match the party decor!

• Aquarium of the Pacific - Mobile Aquarium on Wheels

  Mobile Aquarium

  Many thanks to the Aquarium of the Pacific for bringing their mobile touch tank full of ocean animals - sea urchins, sea stars, sea stars, sand sharks, and more. The kids had a great time touching and learning all about the sea life, and they even did a presentation in our backyard with shark jaws and a giant blow-up sea turtle.

• Entertaining with Emily - Party Printables and Graphic Signage

  Printables

  All graphic signage items that I made for the party are available in my Etsy Shop, https://www.etsy.com/shop/EmilyEntertains!