Under the Sea Afternoon Tea

A belated Happy New Year!

Our New Year always has a delayed start, we have birthday after birthday until the middle of the month. My Mum's is on NYE, Ruby was a New Years Day baby and mine is on the 10th. As A result I don't feel like the new year properly starts until the middle of January.

This year was busy than normal as I also had my City and Guild's coursework to give in and it was a last minute rush because I had spent all my time preparing for Ruby's Under the Sea Afternoon Tea!

Ruby is a mermaid with legs, she loves swimming and The Octonauts so an Under the Sea theme party was inevitable. This is her 5th birthday party!

The Birthday Mermaid

Ruby wore her mermaid dress that I made for her 4th birthday present. She's had a lot of wear out of it, especially here!

My friend Lou saved the day by lending me her cardboard fish from her under the sea party and I mixed them up with blue netting that was draped across cotton that had been zigzagged across the ceiling. Blue pearlised balloons weighted down with a button inside hung from the cotton.

I bought some blue sequin fabric from Fabricland and hung it up over the living room door so that the guests could "enter the sea".

We also hung fairy lights from the ceiling, paper garlands across the room and displays of shells on fabric covered surfaces.

When the party guests arrived they made jelly fish, using paper bowls, strips of the tissue paper and tape. We hung them from the ceiling to add to the decorations. 

With some guests dressed as mermaids and divers they played pass the parcel with pretty shells in each layer, find the magic scale on the fish and throw a bean bag at the octopus.

To make the octopus and the fish game (not shown) I saved Ikea packaging and drew the octopus on, cut a hole for the mouth and provided bean bags to throw through the mouth.

I think my favourite game of the party was the one where each child had to lie on the floor with a sweet on their head. We told them jokes and tickled their toes until there was only one child left. I great way for a little bit of peace at a party.

Fish Food!
The kids ate jam and cream cheese dolphin shaped sandwiches, melon from the melon fish, chocolate shells and macaroon oysters (made by Auntie Anna).

The cake was a vanila ombre ruffle cake with waves, a sandy beach and a toy mermaid on top. I can't find a photo of it but the inside was six layers of blue sponge.

I couldn't resist a photo of Jacob posing as the octopus, he was fantastic on the day and "manned" the octopus game, taking a number of bean bags to the stomach, and the fishing game. Maybe next year he can run the party all by himself!