An opportunity to share my daughter’s mermaid birthday party here at the CSI project? Yes, please! Woohoo! My name is Stef and I blog at Girl. Inspired. I have an addiction to all things crafty; I like to share sewing, decorating, sweet treats, and whatever other crazy project I convince my family is totally necessary for our well-being. Throwing parties for my three girls is my favorite addiction because I have the perfect excuse to try out so many inspiring ideas all in one place. When my littlest asked for a mermaid party for her third birthday, I was excited and terrified to plan an outdoor party. We have a large piece of property in the country, but it is minimally landscaped with very little livable space. Over the past few years, we have built a partial play structure and flattened out a play area. To do a party in this space required shade, fun activities to keep kids happy, and cohesive decorations to warm up the space and transform it into a PARTY!
When planning the party space, I knew I didn’t have thousands of dollars to spend, so I first shopped around my own house and yard for useable items. I think this is such a key element to create a party space.
I used benches and chairs that we purchased from IKEA more than 10 years ago. They are well-weathered and have been sitting on the side of the house for years. I gave them a good scrubbing and then added some handmade pillows to cozy everything up. I dragged an unused wicker trunk out of my closet and staged a little coffee table between the benches and chairs under our shade structure. I pulled out lanterns that we had purchased for our wedding and filled them with sand, shells, and candles and placed them in various places around the space. Hurricanes (also from our wedding) filled with beachy things also decorated tables.
For the food and dessert tables, I reused my bake stand and lemonade stand. By popping off pink boards and replacing them with new, blue ones and painting over the sign, I transformed my “bake shop” into a “BEACH HUT” in just a couple hours work. Awesome!
I brought down a towel rack from the kids’ bathroom (that was not working in there) and put it up on the unfinished playhouse wall across from the kiddie swimming pool. On the shelf, I decorated with handmade signs, shells, and a lantern. An antique chair and my daughter’s LalaLoopsy mermaid complete this space.
The kids played in the pool (which is the same ag trough that my siblings and I swam in as kids) and painted seashells in the partially enclosed playhouse, but the real fun was with the giant mound of sand that we had delivered. I buried a pile of treasure in the sand: seashells, dollar store necklaces and coins, little glass bottles, packaged ring pops, and pocket change in the mountain of sand and provided buckets and shovels for all the kids to stash their treasure – this also served as the party prizes. I realize this isn’t an option for everyone, but it will serve dual purpose for us. After the kids have finished playing in the mountain of sand this summer, we’ll spread it out around the play area to fill in some of the groundcover holes and keep the weeds down. I think it was a big hit among the little ones and went a long way to give an authentic beachy feel to the party. And my kids are elated to have a beach at their house!
I accented the party with coordinating fabrics, tissue poms, and one thrill of a dessert table. I think it was the perfect mix of new items and repurposed items to give a cohesive, decorated feel to a party in an unfinished outdoor space. AND, the best part, now my family has a beach vacation right out our backdoor for the rest of the summer!!
I hope you’ll come over to Girl. Inspired. where I will continue to share tutorials and details on this outdoor mermaid party!!