The Little Mermaid 4th Birthday

Essie is totally obsessed with Ariel right now.  I can't blame her...Ariel is my favorite Disney princess too!  She dressed as Ariel for Halloween this year and has told us a loooong time ago that she wanted her party to be Ariel themed.   She also insisted on it being at JumpZone...thankfully they had an "under the sea" themed room for us to use.  Since the entertainment and decorations parts were covered we just had to come up with food and favors! I bought Essie's dress at Target and had a friend monogram it.  I found my Ariel shirt just days before her party on DisneyStore online.  I HAD to get it and Disney.com is soooo amazing that I got it in time for her party.

Our party room was already decorated so cute for us! We just added a few banners!

The room had sparkly blue tablecloths that we topped with Ariel plates and napkins.  We also laid out her Ariel Golden Book for the guests to sign.  We've done this every year and it's one of my favorite traditions!

 Our menu was simple this year but we wanted to offer a variety of things.  We had Ariel "what's the word" cupcakes in homemade strawberry with strawberry cream cheese frosting and chocolate with buttercream.  I made the cupcake toppers with my favorite sparkle paper for the strawberry ones and decorated the chocolate cupcakes with candied pearls and white chocolate sea shells.

The hubs made her awesome little cake this year.  She insisted on having a cake in addition to her cupcakes.  We love using these little toys from the Disney store.  We of course, cut the cake with her special cake server that her YaYa gave her.  She is supposed to cut every birthday cake with it and then her wedding cake when she gets married.  It's my favorite birthday tradition we have.  

We also made "Under Da Sea" sushi....I made the food tags by scanning a drawing Essie made of Ariel.  I loved that the decorations included her own part!

 One of my favorite things were these Ursula "pops" (because Ursula is popped by Prince Eric at the end of the movie).  I dipped marshmallows into chocolate, added chocolate legs and candy eyes!

We also had "Dinglehopper" cheese (I found the cute little plastic forks at Target) and Flounder's "fish 'n' chips".

We made "mermaid wands" by threading grapes and watermelon stars onto wooden skewers.  

Essie loved this mermaid throne...she did not leave it the whole time!

She got waaay too many presents and had a blast opening each one.  She was beyond excited to play with everything.

I loved that the kids got to play and run around before the party began.  Essie was beyond blessed by so many people show up to show love for her.