Mermaid Birthday Party

I had so much fun this year getting ready for Heidi's birthday. Pinterest made me crazy! There are so many fun ideas on there. Some were too expensive or took too much time so I kind of took all the ideas I found and made my own stuff. It turned out great!

I found some cool clip art online and made her little invitations

 I found these jellyfish on pinterest...they turned out so cute!

 I wanted it to feel like we were under the sea so I hung blue and aqua streamers on the ceiling. I hung blue balloons, little paper fish, and jelly fish from the ceiling. 

 I made the paper fish out of cardstock. This guy is my favorite. :)

 I used seashells that the girls had collected from the beach this summer and glued them to a wood frame from Michaels. Then I just spray painted them white. I wanted everyone to have a cute picture of Heidi to take home with them. :)

 I'm so proud of the cake I made. I love the look of fondant but that takes WAY too much work for me. I found a recipe in a Glamour magazine for a strawberry cake with real strawberries inside and decided to make a checkerboard cake with that and vanilla cake. I used whip cream frosting for the filling and buttercream for the frosting. I put graham crackers in a food processer and used it for sand. I used the clip art I found online and printed it on cardstock, then I cut it out and just stuck it to the cake. I also found cute little candy eyeballs for the fish and used pearl decorations for the bubbles. 

 This is the back

 I found this cute pirate map at the Party Store. I hung it in front of the fireplace and it was a great back drop for opening presents. :)

 Natalie, Heidi and Nokie

 Natalie loved all the gifts Heidi got. :)

 We got Heidi a bicycle for her birthday and she was so excited! 

 She said this was her favorite part of the day...when everyone sang happy birthday to her. :)

The cake turned out really yummy. I'll have to post the recipe for the strawberry cake soon!

With my girls.

The party turned out to be so fun! The kids had a blast. We had really good food. Shane grilled hot dogs and we had a ton of fun toppings. My oven broke the day before the party so I had to make the side dishes and then run them to my families' houses to bake in their ovens. Even with all the craziness, it was a really nice day. I love celebrating birthdays. I love making a big deal out of them. It's important to me that my kids know how special they are and how happy we are that they are in our lives!