Cate's 7th Mermaid Bash

We celebrated my daughter's 7th birthday over the weekend. It was her first party not held at our house. She decided she wanted to have a mermaid party which obviously meant we had to celebrate at a local indoor pool.

The major downside to not having a party at your house is having to pack up everything and transport it to the location. Also this facility limited us to 15 minutes for set up before the party started. Needless to say, it stressed me out!! However, due to my organized nature, I was overly prepared. About a week ago, I staged our dining room table for how I wanted it to look at the party. I took pictures, printed them, and passed them out to my "workers" (awesome family members). That way they were able to grab their assigned bag (bags specific for which area they were setting up) and see the diagram for how to set everything up. I know this sounds insanely ridiculous, but it seemed to work out really well! We were actually finished setting up with time to spare! After the initial stress, the party seemed to go by rather effortlessly.  

*Just realizing the banner could have been straightened out a bit..lol. It looked about frazzled! ;)

One other downfall to having it at this location (and only being allowed 15 minutes for set up) was having to majorly cut back on the amount of decor/food I brought. But considering the circumstances, I thought I managed to do a fairly good job.  We served pizza as the main dish and then had a few snacks as well; Pirate's booty, Seaweed skewers, and fish n chips.

 I had a lot of fun making the desserts this year. I researched and discovered you could bake and freeze the cupcakes which was a major time saver. I also made and froze the cupcake toppers too. I was super relieved yesterday to only have to ice and top the 40 cupcakes (vs starting from scratch and baking them).  So i fixed the majority of the cupcakes with aqua icing and white starfish on top, but fixed one special one for the birthday girl (PINK icing with a mermaid tail on top).

And of course some Mermaid Punch to drink!  I was surprised at how good it tasted (as I'm not big on sugary drinks). And it was such a pretty aqua color.

 I gave bubble bath and candy away as the party favors.

We plated the food for the kids ahead of time to help with time.

I thought the little umbrellas and paper straws were a special touch.

 

The birthday girl ready to get the party started!

After an hour in the party room, the kids had an hour at the pool. They all had an absolute blast!

 

It was such a fun party and I'm so thankful for all of our friends and some family members for showing their love for Cate.