Mermaid Party (Indie's 3)

August 29, 2016

Mermaid Party (Indie's 3)

We finally wrapped up the celebration madness of Indie turning 3. We had a family and friend party in our teeny apartment this weekend. Indie was in heaven. Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate and support our little bug!

Damon designed this invitation for the party.

I slowly made decorations during nap times, and started setting up a night or two before.

The costumes for all the little party guests

I feel a little guilty about how bare the boys pirate gear was. Especially when compared to the mermaids. Sorry boys! However, when I was making the swords Indie was very interested and declared she was going to be a mermaid who saved the day with her sword! So, at least we know the swords were captivating to the preschool imagination.

Indie has come into a new phase of wanting to be glued to my side 24/7. She wants to always be helping me in depth and included in my activities. If that's not possible then she wants to have me playing with her one on one. Til one of us dies. If one of those activities are not being pursued we have meltdowns. It's been a hard transition. I'm trying to learn how to navigate her newfound desires and her complicated independent dependence.

Needless to say, She LOVED helping me make the cake and cupcakes for her party.

I finally got her to wear the apron I made her for her second birthday. She hates it, but tolerated it to save her favorite Twirl dress from getting dirty.

The day of the party Estelle was an angel baby as we had to rush around and let her entertain herself. She did, however, have a massive blow out after this picture. A sweet gesture of good luck to set our mad dash of preparations off to a good start.

Indie was so tickled to come get the flowers and helium balloons with me.

Papa Joe, hyperventilating as he blew up balloons and entertained The Squishy.

Gma Sooz loving on Stinky. It was a full time job. (Joe and Susan were both so great and willing to help with whatever I threw at them.)

I felt bad about the lack of space for all the guests. Hopefully the saying of 'the more the merrier,' was something everyone embraced as we fit more and more bodies inside.

Treasure Hunt

After everyone ate we embarked on a Treasure Hunt. This little mermaid started us off.

Ahoy, mermaids and pirates.

I am a mermaid, with treasure that’s hidden

It’s yummy and shiny; to you it’ll be given

But first you must follow the clues that I’ve placed

And overcome obstacles that must be faced

Now off to our adventure let us all go

And treasure will be yours, yo ho ho ho.

Let’s start in the room with balloons, scattered about

Spy another paper like this, and give out a shout!

We went off the the living room and they found the next mermaid quickly!

The clue read:

Let’s take a picture of this daring Crew

Before our first activities is due

Outside we will go, to work in the sea

And that much closer to the treasure we’ll be

The littles were so stinking cute, all chanting 'cheese' and wondering who the heck to look at as we were all snapping a million pictures. Then outside we went for our first activity. We had an aquarium (left over from Damon's neglected passion) filled with water and glass jars. Each of the kids got a bag of pennies to try and drop in the jars.

The next clue read:

Oh no, our mermaid friend needs your help

She lost her tail in some yucky kelp

Lets pin it back on, help her swim on her way

Then she’ll give us the next treasure clue, Hooray!

We didn't blind fold the kids, I thought that might make it a bit too difficult. They all did such a great job at taking turns and being patient.

The next clue read:

The fish need your help now, they really can’t swim

There are too many bubbles, the outlook’s quite grim

With so many bubbles those fishies can’t see.

So let’s pop them all away, and set the fishes free!

The kids played in the bubbles until they were bored of it. ('I'm boring of this, Mom' as Indie would say)

The next clue read:

We are getting so close, the treasure’s almost here

But we mermaids need help cleaning, we haven’t all year

Our messy water balloon toys have piled up high

We need you to throw them in the hoops, don’t be shy

Indie told me this was her favorite part. The kids had a ball tossing the balloons everywhere. Poor Damon worked so long and hard to fill every balloon. I'm sure it was a bit rough to watch them be demolished so quickly.

The next clue read:

Now let’s run through the sprinkler, fast as a fish

And crawl through the crawl tunnel you might have to squish

Brave as a pirate and quick like mermaid

Get through that tunnel and a treasure clue I’ll trade

They ran through that sprinkler super fast and were so cute piling into the small green tunnel as fast as they could.

The next clue read:

Mermaids and pirates it’s time to relax and have some fun

Come to my mermaid princess house, we’ll play balls in the sun

Once you’ve played enough and your fins get tired

I’ll give you the next clue to the treasure that you’ve desired

The kids all ran and piled into the teeny princess castle. They were jam packed in there, and we were just waiting for someone to get hurt or have a claustrophobic break down. But they loved it. No complaints.

The next clue read:

Grab onto the Whale and hold on tight

She’ll swim you through the deep ocean to finish our plight

Once everyone has crossed the ocean deep and blue

We can unlock this treasure chest, to reveal our last clue

The kids really liked this one too. Originally I imagined them just holding onto the fish themselves and running through the cones. But they had their hearts set on sitting on the thing. I think they were a bit disappointed it wouldn't really swim them by itself.

I helped swim them all across, the Kids had a great time re arranging the cones as their play mates swam over the deep blue.

They were really excited about the treasure box. Which hid the last clue.

We need a birthday mermaid, so sweet and so brave

To use this magical opener to our mermaid cave

Inside you will find our treasure so grand

It’ll will be yours to collect hidden among the sand.

(Damon said this mermaid was too sexy for the 3 year olds birthday party. It was the first one I drew so we hid it away in the treasure box, so not to scandalize any young minds.) We also had the garage opener in there, to open the magical mermaid cove.

Finally! The Treasure in the magical mermaid cove garage! I had had visions of decking out the inside of the garage, but we ran out of time. Oh well, the kids loved it anyways. They were so tickled every time they found a new treasure.

Treasure Chests!

Once all the treasure was fished out of the sand, the kids went inside to paint their own treasure box. They were all so concentrated and enthralled. It went silent as they worked.

I was so impressed with Indie's. She covered every inch, each side was done so neatly and with a different color. All her own idea.

Cake

The cake was a little special. I was throwing on the frosting as people were arriving, so while not intentional, it has a look like it had once been under the water with the mermaids at one time or another.

I made cupcakes for all the littles (don't worry about her face... ops) They all wanted a slice of Indie's cake though. Indie was super great about sharing.

Opening gifts! Indie had so many helpers, and all the helpers did such a good job at letting Indie do her thing. It's so hard when they're little to not be so excited and ripping open the gifts themselves.

The after party!

I'd be lying if I said our house was offically cleaned up from this weekends fun. We still have the sand in the 'mermaid cove,' a few dirty dishes, and balloons running a muck.