Mermaid Shell-abration

Olive has loved mermaids for a couple of years now so it was easy to pick a theme for her 4th birthday.  We went to Florida over Spring Break and I got some really cute pictures of her at the ocean.  I was able to use one for her invitation and then printed several others to decorate with at her party.  I didn't spend a lot on decorations.  I used her mermaid toys, grabbed our shell collection from all of our past trips to the beach and then picked up some paper party products.  It turned out really cute and she was thrilled!

We celebrated her birthday with Kevin's family, my family and then back at our house on her actual birthday.  We are lucky to have lots of family members just two hours away so we always travel to be with them on the kid's birthdays.  We also enjoy visiting with everyone so we spread her parties out a bit instead of having one large party.  It works for us for now :)

Welcome to the Mermaid Shella-bration!!

I try to always make homemade cupcakes for birthdays and found some fun supplies to use.  These Wilton bubble sprinkles were from Easter and the Betty Crocker cupcake liners were perfect.

I picked up two $4.97 bouquets that Olive decided were the prettiest ones at Wal-Mart and they went perfectly with our colors.

We had her party at Kevin's parent's house first.  It's a great place to host a party :)

 My MIL surprised Olive was a fun new birthday outfit.  She loved the sparkles and the tutu.

 Fletcher wore his shark shirt from Old Navy and I love that he put his arm around her when I stood him next to her.

 Olive loved helping me decorate before the party.  Kevin grilled burgers, everyone brought side dishes to share and it was a fun evening.

Last year Fletcher slept through a good chunk of her party so it was fun to have him participating this year.

 She kept telling everyone she was THREE because technically she was still three for a few days.

She later told me that she used her birthday wish to wish for a pet unicorn :)

We had another fun lunch party with my side of the family on Sunday.  Kevin ordered pizzas, my mom chopped up fruits and veggies and we got a big cookie cake from the mall to share.  My mom and SIL made the cutest mermaid tail bread sticks and I brought some fish food.

 Life is better with cousins :)

 We used a Fancy Nancy book for Olive's birthday book this year.  She loves the Mermaid Ballet so it was perfect.  It's so fun to look back at her birthday books and see how much her little hand print has changed.

I ordered these sticker sea creatures and fish masks from Amazon.  The stickers were great - I'd peel off the white background to make it easier for little kids to get all the stickers off.  The masks were fine, but seemed small.  So I'd only recommend them for little kids.

 I think I've tried for almost 4 years for Olive to wear a party hat and this is the first year where she asked for one :)  And then pesky little brother was super interested in it.  haha

Fletcher & Papaw

These sweet cousins are all FOUR right now!  They play so well together and it's sweet to see their friendship grow as they get older.

 Thanks to all the aunts, uncles, my family, Kevin's family and friends that came to celebrate Olive.  She felt super loved and special all weekend long!!