A Mermaid Party, No Ariel Allowed.

For Kennedy's 8th Birthday she invited 3 friends over for An Under the Sea, Mermaid themed party. Kenna told me about a year ago that she really wanted a Mermaid themed party so I've had a long time to prepare. Which makes one wonder why I waited until about a week before to get to work on it. 

I don't know what possessed me to make not one paper mache' fish for a pinata, but four more, for decoration. Maybe someone needs to hit me with a bat, I dunno. Paper mache' is time intensive ya'll! And then I pulled out my paints to find I had about 3 colors that were usable, but all now in gel form. So I hopped in the car and ran to Target and picked up some more. *SNAP!* Oh hi reality. Yeah, I had no idea where to find more paint so I made do with what I had. "Making Do" is not a favorite activity of mine, fyi.

As the girls arrived we put a flower clip we'd made in the girl's hair and a shell necklace around their neck and each of the girls set out coloring their own mermaid. 

This party was an Ariel free zone, largely because Ariel is a naive, disobedient, tantrum throwing, heaving-bosomed 16 year old child bride who pitches a fit and then gets her way-  HOW I DID NOT PICK UP ON THIS when I was obsessed with the movie, and sound track I had on cassette tape with which I would force my sister and neighbors to reinact scenes, with me headlining as Ariel, of course- I will never know.

 Anyway, at some point years later it dawned on me the lack of values in the story and so, though my kids watch the movie once in a great while, I wasn't about to dedicate a whole party to her. Not when Kennedy and her friends would make better mermaids just being their cute selves. 

 Cute Selves Exhibit A

 We used the Mermaids the girls colored and cut out for "Pin the Mermaid on the Shell Throne". When I told Kohen he didn't have to color a mermaid, there was actually such a thing as "Mer-men" he made a face like he'd smelled stinky socks and said, "No thanks, I think I'll just be a shark." So there was quite a scene when Kohen planted his shark right on a mermaids head (you can see, above). He couldn't have been more satisfied with himself or the room full of squealing girls. 

 Giving the fish some love before they smash her face -and my 5+ hours of work- to bits.

 I've seen enough America's Funniest Videos to know that it isn't so smart for Nathan to hold out the pinata while a bunch of kids swing at it with a bat...
Here is Kennedy with the first crack, which thankfully only made contact with the pinata.

 And a great action shot of Maddie gutting the fish.  

This ^ was a party favor, and all I will say is that I was doing more of that "making do" again. Luckily, I had the girls at M&Ms.

 If the paper mache' fish weren't proof enough of my desire to inflict unnecessary pain and stress on myself, I offer you this. A cake complete with fondant frosting (my first time ever working with it) and the sugar I made to look like seaweed which took three tries to get how I wanted it, and I also didn't have the cake pans I would've preferred. Taking all my disclaimers into consideration, I feel fine about how it turned out.

 So did the birthday girl. I think having a birthday party, and more importantly, having friends to actually invite to her party, was a really big deal for her. And in spite of all my complaining about party prep, if I'm being honest, I really enjoyed doing it. It was a labor of love. (Except for the part where the fondant wasn't working and my kids were swarming me in the kitchen and I closed my eyes and yelled, "GET OUT! AND DON'T COME BACK FOR AT LEAST 5 MINUTES!!" except for that, it was all love).

 Happy Birthday Kennedy Jolee!

xoxo