halle's under the sea party

I am either awesome or crazy, but we had ten children over to our house for a little mermaid under the sea party for Halle's 4th birthday.  I couldn't help but invite a lot of the children who have had Halle over for playdates during these last few months to show them how much we love them.  And to hopefully give their sweet moms a little break in return for all the times they watched Halle.  I felt like it was my chance to thank them for all they have done.  We sent all the children a message in a bottle, complete with sand and seashells, inviting them to an under the sea party.  I did put a little p.s. at the bottom uninviting children who had been sick within the last week so that Wes could be at the party he he. 

a little pre-party water balloon filling with our best helper lily

 My Halle girl loves a good adventure and there was no way we could start an under the sea adventure without having our own little buddies just like Ariel has flounder.  Painting is one of Halle's favorite things to do, so as the kids started showing up we had them paint their own wooden wiggle fish.  

Once those were done we were ready to begin.  

As we headed toward the stairs we were shocked to hear someone calling for help.  We ran outside to find Prince ERic stuck in a storm (which just happened to be aunt rachel spraying the hose off our deck to look like rain.  He needed someone to save him and all the kids were pretty shy except three little mermaids who rushed out to grab his hand.  

Prince Eric informed us that Ursula had stolen some treasure and that we would have to ask Flounder where she was.  We found Flounder, but Ursula had taken his tail.  He wouldn't tell us anything until we helped him find his tail and so a round of pin the tail on Flounder began.  

After we fixed him up he told us to ask the fishes where Ursula was hiding the treasure.  We found a pool of fish and looked under each one for a clue.  

We found a picture of Ursula under a rubber duck and knew she was near.  We needed a weapon to defeat her and so we searched and searched for something until we found King Triton's trident.  

We headed deep into her lair and found Ursula guarding the treasure.  

Little mermaid Halle rushed in and stabbed Ursula, who miraculously changed into Grandma Nimer.  We rescued the treasure boxes and found our cupcakes inside.

A word about these beauties: it is no secret that I can't bake, so I enlisted cousin Abby Bell (the cake genius) to make some cupcakes and voila she produced these scrumptious and beautiful things and worked so hard when all I had asked her for were some edible cupcakes with blue frosting.  We were all blown away.  Bless you sweet Abby.

Now it was time to feast.  

We sang to the birthday girl and ate cupcakes (with blue frosting per Halle's request) that were too gorgeous to eat.  

After cake we had Halle open her presents.  

She was SPOILED. 

 I was tickled to see all the girls were interested in the presents while the boys were happy to sit back play until present time was over.  

Then the real under the sea fun began.  

All the kids came dressed to get wet.  And I am so glad this is what we had planned because the weekend before the party our air conditioner broke and was still broken that afternoon.  Thank goodness the bulk of her party was outisde staying cool in the water instead of inside our inferno of a home.  

We set up a pool, water balloons, bubbles, and my favorite feature, a slip n' slide.  Except this was no ordinary slip n'slide.  Grandma Bell was kind enough to pay for the slip n' slide of my dreams complete with a large shark head that the children have to slide through.  Needless to say, it was a hit.  

I loved watching all the adorable children interact with each other and play for the rest of the afternoon.  And one or two children couldn't help but ask where prince eric and ursula were.  

We sent them home with treat buckets and their fish buddies and thankfully no injuries!  

These kids were just so well behaved it made for a lovely afternoon.

sweet kaylie

all the super cool party people

adorable madeleine

grandmas with bubble machines

this little fish was in the pool practically the whole time

an andrew cannon ball

sweet twinkie twins

dad, mom, and the birthday girl (i look like i have the angelina jolie leg going on)

oh yeah and lily was there too

pure joy right there

A special thank you: to all of Halle's sweet friends for coming and their thoughtful gifts, to my mama for helping me clean in a hot house, braiding halle's hair, and blowing up balloons, to my other mama for buying the slip n' slide, decorating and helping out, to auntie rachel for holding up the shark head most of the party, to my amazing husband for going along with the insanity, being prince eric, and letting children into our home even though germs freak you and your chemo self out. What would I have done without all of your help!