Mermaid Birthday Party for Toddlers

Shana Bryn
Jul 31
2 min read

This year is the first time I asked Laila what theme she wanted for her birthday party. Mermaids! My dreams have come true. I have a daughter that loves mermaids as much as me.

Now all I had to do was come up with mermaid activities for a group of toddlers in a backyard with no water activities other than water table. Each year I’ve had different crafts to keep the littlest busy. I try to made it so that they can do things with just enough supervision for kids to play and parents to talk and eat.

Four years ago Cody’s first building adventure was to make four toddler activity tables with removable legs for easy storage. These tables have gotten far more use than I ever expected. We’ve even loaned them out for other parties. They are the best party investment that we made, and we save a lot by making them ourselves.

Each table were set with different craft activities. Scratch away ocean themes characters, make your own mermaid stickers, and rainbow pearl beads to make necklaces and bracelets. We also had a become a mermaid station with roll on glitter, mermaid temporary tattoos, shell themes hair clips, seashell necklaces, and mirrors.

Additional activities included a bounce house (which we have now used for multiple parties), a ball pit, tunnel/tents, train table, giant connect four, hackey sack, and a soccer net. I also set up a water table with aquarium rocks and plastic plants, an electric pump, electric fish, gems, and mermaids.

Now that the activities were decided on, we needed some decorations and food. For decor I hung paper jellyfish from our tomato trellis arches, scattered sea shells that were collected by my mom and grandmother over decades (the perks of being from Florida), and ocean themes decor on the food table.

I’ve been baking for all of our events the last four years. I really enjoy it, even though it’s also stressful. I start baking weeks before and freeze as I go. Everything disappears so I guess freezing it al does just fine. Especially with having a newborn I needed to plan ahead. I made ocean themes sugar cookies, rice cakes (vegan and dairy), and pavlovas. Chocolate and oatmeal raisin cookies (dairy free). Home made lemon curd and sea shell chocolates. A mermaid. Lemon, lavender, and vanilla cupcakes. And a berry filled birthday cake. And all these deserts were gluten free with some being dairy free.

For food I have brunch foods. I made waffles, a fritata, pineapple mango salsa, fresh kale (from the backyard) salad, watermelon feta salad, arugula orzo salad, tuna salad, egg salad, and home made flavored cream cheese. There was also home make hummus and cut up veggies. I buy bagels (both gluten free and regular). I also included some lox and home made whipped cream.