Age group(s) for this birthday party activity:
Preschool and Younger
Elementary School

Cost of birthday party activity:
This really depends on what supplies you choose to use and where you buy it all. I shopped at the local dollar store and Ebay to save money. I also bought supplies online through Oriental Trading.

Birthday party planning information:
This was primarily planned for preschool children although there were a couple of elementary age guests that were invited and took part. This was an outside party but with a few minor changes it would be easy to have inside.

We looked for ideas at www.birthdaypartyideas.com, www.coolest-kid-birthday-parties.com, www.everythingpreschool.com , www.brightideas.com (this is done by Mars Inc. You know, those people that make skittles, mars bars, m&m's, etc.? So all the ideas have a ton of candy on them.) and of course here at www.familyeducation.com.

Hopefully, you're looking at this theme at least 5-6 weeks beforehand because it does work on a timetable. However, if you're organized it's possible to do this in three weeks.

Talk to your child about 5 weeks before their birthday or the planned date. First, you need to decide how many guests you will be inviting so you know supplies are needed, such as favors and prizes, tableware, etc. Now choose a date and time frame, and decide where the event will be held, especially if you'll have to reserve a restaurant or other venue.

For supplies, I love www.orientaltrading.com. They have a ton of cool stuff at great prices, especially for the fish theme. Just type in fish, tropical, ocean, etc. into the search box and you'll find all kinds of stuff. Including a nice clown fish pinata (Nemo anyone?) that's much cheaper than the official Nemo as well as having the flat bottom that is much needed to convert it into a pull string pinata. Pull string pinatas are the best for preschoolers. But there are a ton of sites out there for birthday parties.

Four Weeks Beforehand:

1.     This is the time to order your supplies to give them plenty of time to arrive. For the goody bags, at Oriental Trading, my son chose tropical fish goody bags, a dolphin sticker scene, and tropical fish kaleidoscopes and a roll of tropical fish stickers. I actually kept the stickers aside to use as consolation prizes for those games we had that not everyone could win THE prize.

2.     I also bought a big lot of stuff on Ebay that was left over from the seller's son's birthday party. It included blowfish sippers, foam sea creature sun visors, fish shaped bookmarks, mini tropical activity sets (mini coloring book & 4 crayons), fish bubbles, tropical fish pennants, etc. Most of those things can also be found at Oriental Trading. We also bought on Ebay tropical fish tablecloths, a Pinata pull string converter kit, mini inflatable fish, and a foam fish dartboard, all of which can also be found at Oriental Trading. I pretty much found every supply I needed online at Oriental Trading or Ebay. It's really up to you how fancy you want to go and what you need. Remember, if you plan on ordering your tableware vs. buying it locally, you need to order it now as well. Oriental Trading has some great orange tableware (that's the color my son chose) as well as many other bright colors. Another place that I like to order solid color partyware is at www.partyperfection.com. They have good prices as well as a good selection although you do have to dig a bit to find the solid colored items.

You should also start getting an idea for what activities you'd like to do. Oriental Trading has a ton of crafts that you can choose from, as well as an inflatable octopus ring toss, foam fish dart boards, an inflatable dolphin ring toss game, and even a fish themed bean bag toss. In which case they need to be ordered now. Otherwise, most supplies can be bought locally later.

Three Weeks Beforehand:

Now that you know the number of guests, it's time to send out the invites. Design your own on the computer like I did, find cool printable ones online, or buy them. It's up to you. If you design your own, make sure it's clearly marked when, where, how long and rsvp info. I designed my own. I found some cool free tropical fish clipart and then designed it to fold into quarters. On the front, it said Under the Sea, Under the Sea, Come Celebrate Turning ____ With Me. On the inside, it said Port (address), Cast-off (date), Dive time (start time), Resurface (end time), S.O.S (RSVP) with phone number and also "SEA you soon!!". If you don't want to design your own, but would still like to print them, www.coolest-kid-birthday-parties.com has a couple that you can choose from that have cool backgrounds. www.dltk-cards.com has a ton of printable stuff and even www.brightideas.com has a few things.

Two Weeks Beforehand:

1. Ok, it's time to decide on treats and snacks! I feel bad serving a sugar-loaded cake, ice cream and punch so I like to have some more healthy snacks on the side. It helps both ways. One, you can get away with serving smaller slices of cake since their little tummies are already half full, and two, you don't get mad parents when you send a sugar overloaded little kid home. This is also good for children that aren't used to a lot of sugar and might get sick even on a small slice of cake.

I served octo-dogs (hotdogs cut to look like an octopus), colored goldfish crackers, slices of a variety of cheeses, fresh fruit consisting of strawberries, mango, pineapple (I have heard that Dole sells canned pineapple cut in fish shapes, but I've never seen them. It would be cool if you could find something like that.) & kiwi, fish shaped chicken nuggets and orange cream milk punch that I found at www.allrecipes.com. I switched the orange sherbet in it for blue raspberry since it fit in with the theme better. There are a ton of other cool punch recipes there. Or, there is a good recipe for Blue Hawaiian Punch at www.cooks.com that I had planned on using before I found the milk punch. You can however find other ideas for treats & punch at most, if not all of the other sites that I have already mentioned.

2. It's also time to definitely settle on your games and activities. Most of the sites already mentioned have great game and activity ideas. We settled on Pin the Tentacles on the Octopus, a fish beanbag toss, Deep Sea Fishing, Dolphin Ring Toss, Pass the Poisonous Fish, Jellyfish Jump, the foam fish dart board and of course the Pinata.

I found and printed the octopus picture myself and each child had a blast sticking on the legs. The beanbag toss I also made myself. I already had a dino beanbag toss from the year before and I just used the back to paint a fish scene.

The dolphin ring toss was actually found at the dollar store, along with some little magnetic fishing poles and little fish.

For pass the poisonous fish, aka hot potato, we used the little inflatable mini fish I mentioned earlier.
For deep-sea fishing, we used an old fish scene shower curtain and the kids "fished" over it. The child had a pole with a paperclip on the end of it and an adult sat behind the curtain attaching a small price to the pole. Each child got something different and all were excited with their prize.

Jellyfish Jump is just that, a jumping game. I bought three really cool iridescent hoola hoops at the dollar in descending sizes. If you've seen Finding Nemo, just imagine the jellyfish scene where they have to jump on the top of the jellyfish to keep from getting stung. So of course, the children have to land in the ring. If they land on the outside, they're stung and are out. Just move the rings out in each consecutive turn until you have a winner.

For a full time activity, we filled up a plastic wading pool about half way and dumped the dollar store fishing sets into. We left the poles beside the pool, as well as nets, ladles, etc. for the kids to play with whenever they were bored etc. It was especially good for the little ones that weren't really old enough to participate in the games, but still had to be included in some way. Just be sure that there are plenty of people keeping an eye on them. The wading pool came in handy to be used for the dolphin ring toss as well when it came time for that.

As mentioned before, I had a different prize for each game and fish stickers as a consolation prize for those that didn't win the game. I tried to set it up so each child would win a game, but it didn't always work. Some of the games though, such as the beanbag toss, deep sea fishing, and pin the tentacle on the octopus, everyone won so the stickers weren't needed.

One great game for children this small is the clothespin drop. You know, where the child has to drop clothespins in a jar? Just decorate a jar to look like a fish and call it Feed the Fish. I didn't use this myself, but it's a great game.

3. If you would like a craft as an activity, here are some good ideas. Paper Plate Jelly Fish, which just consist of paper plates cut in half for the head, and cr? streamers for the legs. They're really easy to glue together. There is also a Paper Plate Fish that consist of a paper plate with a small triangle cut from it (imagine the mouth) and triangles cut from colored paper for the fins. Just have the kids color their plates and then glue on the fins and if you wish, some google eyes. Or just draw an eye. These are both easy to do, or do a search online. A lot of the sites I've already mentioned have some great easy crafts. Crafts are a great sit down activity when you need the children to relax for a little bit.

One Week Beforehand:

1. Order the cake if you are not making it yourself. I love our local baker and I admit it really came in handy this year. I was 9 months pregnant at this party and didn't feel like making the two cakes needed, so I ordered one and made the other one. If you are making one yourself, start looking for ideas. Most of the sites I mentioned have great ones, as well as www.birthdayexpress.com (you can get your supplies here too) and www.wilton.com.

2. Double check your reservations if any were made to make sure it's still going as planned.

3. If there are any treats you chose that can be made ahead and frozen, do it! This will save you so much time.

Two - Three Days Beforehand:

1. Purchase any food you need for the party you were unable to get beforehand and freeze, such as fresh fruit or cheese.

2. Make sure you have plenty of disposable cameras or charge camera batteries and purchase extra film.
Be sure to et an accurate guest count. Call any that have't RSVP'd so you know who is attending.
Set up your goody bags. My son had a blast helping me make small name tags to put on each bag and then filling each with their goodies.

3. I also prepared the Pinata at this time. I converted it to the pull string (kids are horrible when they have sticks, especially little ones) and placed a bag of gummy fish inside for each child. I just bought a bag of them at my local bulk store and divided some of it into the little baggies (you can find fish themed ones at Oriental Trading.). The pre-made package of candy & toys for Pinatas just aren't safer for the smaller kids and invariably, there is always a child left out. They're also expensive, depending on where you find them.

One Day Beforehand:

1. Decorate any indoor/outdoor areas, if possible. I was unable to do this since, although we were having it outside, my husband is a full time student and we live on campus in student housing. Could you imagine me putting all this out the night before only to have a bunch of kids tear it down? So it had to wait until a couple of hours before the party.

2. Child proof the party area, if needed. For us, it didn't need to be done. All we had to do was keep an eye on the wading pool during the party.

3. Start preparing the food that can be made ahead and defrost any food you made ahead of time and froze.

4. Make and decorate the cake or pick it up from the bakery. For me, I had to do both of these. :D The cake I ordered was frosted and painted with a sea scene, but had no fish because I had a few fish decorations at home already, as well as really cool tropical fish candles that I found. They are made by Wilton, a big supplier of most of your cake supplies such as decorating or cool theme pans. I found mine online at Ebay although I did see them at other birthday sites to order. There were four, which is perfect since my little guy was turning four. For the cake I made, I chose a tropical theme (coconut and pineapple baby). I used Coconut Ice Box Cake #38658 and Cake Mix Extender #54269 found at www.recipezaar.com . I thought a tropical themed cake fit very well here. For this, the filling needs to be made the night before you plan on making the cake. So I actually started this two days before the party. I tripled the recipe since I made the cake bigger and I wanted to be sure and have enough. Besides the filling between each layer of the cake, I also added drained crushed pineapple. And before spreading out the filling, I had divided the juice from the pineapple and poured it over each layer. I tinted the leftover filling a pretty blue and used it as the frosting. I then used some little fish picks that came on some long forgotten cupcakes for decoration. Super simple and easy.

5. If you can, put out the plates, napkins and tableware you have ordered for the party. Be sure to plenty of everything since the little kids seem to use tons! And designate area for gifts to be placed on.

THE BIG DAY!

1. If you ordered helium balloons such as mylars (there are a great selection online) have them filled up at the local grocery. Or buy them prefilled. Most grocery stores carry them and you may be lucky to find one to fit in the fish theme.

2. Set out the food. I found some cool fish shaped platters and bowls at the dollar store. Also get your punch prepared, but be sure to refer to the directions on when to finish it. You don't want a punch full of melted ice cream glop before the guests ever arrive.

3. Do any last minute decorating. Which for us was everything! Bleh. There is a small gazebo here for our use, and my husband also bought our own gazebo. We spread the fish themed tablecloths over the picnic tables. We then placed orange crepe paper and balloons made to look fish around the edges. On one table was spread the food, cakes, punch, and tableware. I set out some plastic blowfish sippers on it for a little extra decoration. We left a spot at the end for the presents. Along the top of the gazebo we bought, we hung the pennants and one side we hung the shower curtain for the deep sea fishing game to be used as a backdrop until the game. I also found fish themed cutouts at the dollar store that we hung about. Don't forget the Pinata! It serves as a great decoration.

And above all, HAVE FUN!! For your child's special day, be sure they have a lot of fun, be safe and have a great time!

Other suggestions or comments:
Use your computer to make printable decorations if possible. There are a ton of sites that have free fish themed clipart, coloring pages, etc. Simpli Fun Childrens Party Games (simplifun.com) has some cool kits to choose from although they do cost on average about $15. They have a really awesome fish kit that can also be used for a beach party. It has printable invites, thank you notes, games, sun visors, t-shirt transfers, decorations, etc. It's really worth the money and I was dissapointed that I found it too late to incorporate into my party this year. You just need to have Adobe to access it after paying.