Under the Sea: An Ariel Party!

I am all partied out!  16 kids, one balloon/ceiling fan incident and a broken piece of furniture later, Addison’s 5th birthday party was a success!

First, I owe a huge Thank You to my sister for the most awesome cake ever!  We had a bit of trouble finding an appropriate topper for the cake, but my sister found an Ariel toy that fit the bill.  Now, this cake was far larger than what we needed, but it’s what Addison asked for and my sister insisted on delivering just what she wanted.

Check out the details and all of the awesome colors!

Some of the great folks on Twitter suggested I check out Disney Family for ideas for the party.  I found this salt dough project and tweaked it a little to come up with these…  They were the best, least expensive party favors ever!  I had about $2 in the twine and I already had everything else on hand.  Rather than using cookie cutters like the directions indicated, I used the candy mold I had used for the starfish lollipops (below) and got a smoother, rounder starfish.  I mixed red, yellow and white paint until I had a yellowish orange color that made me happy.  I wanted them to be close to the color of the starfish on the cake as well as the starfish lollipops.

After some minor frustration caused by a bad batch of candy melts, these lollipops actually turned out to be pretty easy!  I got the idea from Kierra Maye’s Blog and decided that lollipops would be better for my group.  The mold was easy to find on Ebay.  I picked it up for about $4.  The sand was simply graham cracker crumbs.

These Pearly Bites were another awesome find from Disney Family Fun.  The only thing I did differently was the pearl.  The website suggested using a yogurt covered raisin, but I had my sister whip up some balls of fondant and coat them with some pearl powder.  These were too cute and such a hit!

The cookies were perfect to sit around on the table as a filler and something easy that the kids could grab and munch without touching a bunch of other food.

We were all very pleased, especially the birthday girl, but I am so glad I’ve got a 5 month break before we party again!