Although I have enjoyed helping my daughter pick out her birthday themes so far, it is even better having her tell me what type of party she would like to have so I can help maker her dreams come true! When she requested an Ariel, Little Mermaid party this year, I didn’t hesitate to run with it! If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know my little girl has been obsessed with Ariel since early this year. I too, have been an Ariel fan since I was young and have to say I LOVED every minute of planning this party for her! To make decorating and finding items a little easier, I suggested to Miss Lace that we do a mermaid theme with a splash of Ariel (pun intended :)) and she agreed!This was our first kid centred birthday party that we’ve thrown and I’ll admit, I didn’t know exactly where to start. After talking to some friends who also have young children, I got my ideas together and decided we would have the party at our house. Miss Lace was happy with that and it gave me a bit more control in terms of decorating as well as saved us on some of the costs associated with renting a place! We invited only a total of 8 little girls, so hosting was easy!

My daughter’s only requests for the party itself were: an Ariel visitor and an Ariel cake (which she saw at Bulk Barn) so I had to make those happen! We hired a local company called Heather’s Pretty Parties to perform as Ariel and do face paint for the girls. They are extremely talented face paint artists and painted one child at a time, while Ariel entertained the other kids for an hour with games and songs! I didn’t think I would have the time to make the Ariel cake of my daughter’s dreams for the kid’s party so instead I bought an Ariel cake topper off of Amazon and put it on a mermaid themed cake, which I had made by Cassidy & Johanna’s Cakes. I ended up making the Ariel cake of her dreams with the Wilton cake pan from Bulk Barn, for her family party the following weekend. She LOVED it. It was a labour of love to ice but well worth it!

In terms of decor, I bought a mermaid box set from Homesense which included plates, cups, napkins and party hats for the kids. I got the white spandex chair covers (which I plan to use again in the future) and sequin tablecloth off of Amazon. The balloon arches, scalloped number four and Ariel cardboard cut out, I made all myself. The mermaid wand sign and the front entrance sign were made by my talented and crafty sister in law. The Happy Birthday sign, large mermaid balloon and starfish straws were from Target. The larger Ariel sign was a Hobby Lobby clearance find and the Ariel backdrop which came with props was from Party Stuff. The mermaid tails were mostly from Homesense, with the exception of the turquoise one which was from Target. I always do some type of decor on our front entrance wall so we can take photos there with family every birthday. I ended up creating this scalloped wall out of coloured paper plates that fit with the mermaid theme. It was a super cheap and easy way to transform the space!

Every mermaid got a seashell wand when they arrived, which they could take home with them. The wands were locally made by a company called Jack Be Thimble and turned out amaaaaazing! The girls also got to take home little goodie sand pails filled with an Ariel sticker pad, a mermaid pool float and a princess straw.

We surprised Miss Lace by dressing her brother up as Flounder for the event as she kept asking me to make him into that for Halloween this year. I had his felt Flounder mask also made by Jack Be Thimble. His shirt was from Old Navy and I cut out felt pieces and glued them on to be the fins. I never really wear a lot of colour but decided that for this event I would embrace the mermaid theme by purchasing a dress in my daughter’s favourite colours (turquoise and purple) from J Crew.

I had so much fun planning, crafting, decorating, and prepping for this whole event! I always tell my hubby that throwing parties for our kid’s birthdays is one of my love languages for them, as I truly enjoy it. Making my daughter’s dreams come true and watching the joy on her face as she looked carefully at everything we did for her was incredible!