Under the Sea Themed Birthday Party

Over the weekend, we celebrated my goddaughter's 7th and my husband's 37th birthday in a big way with an Under the Sea themed party. It took quite a bit of work to pull off, but we were so happy with how it turned out. Today I'd like to share some of the photos with you.

I sewed a 'sailcloth' curtain (just a piece of natural cotton) to create a backdrop for a fishing net (found at Michaels) and paper banners and shells (cut on my Silhouette Cameo). On the ends of the curtain I hung lengths of turquoise tulle.

Banana dolphins jumped out of the fruit salad.

Croissant crab sandwiches filled a platter.

Another crab hogged all of the hummus.

Sand dollar cookies sat in raw sugar sand.

And many chocolate shells were snatched up by little hands.

Tropical fish (cut with my Silhouette Cameo) swam in the blue waters over our breakfast bar.

A big, pink octopus hung out over the table.

Three beautiful, iridescent jellyfish floated around the table, too.

Each child had a chocolate cupcake with buttercream icing to take home.

And then there was the cake- a complete labor of love. Three layers of chocolate cake with a chocolate mousse layer in between, the covered with buttercream icing waves and surrounded by chocolate shells. It was so heavy, my kitchen scale wouldn't weigh it. 

It was the dolphin cake topper, sculpted by my husband from Wilton Shape-n-Amaze, that really stole the show.

The birthday girl, who was in the pool on the blow-up dolphin most of the time, absolutely loved her party.

This guy had a pretty good time, too. Although, I owe him a birthday do-over for all of the hard work he did helping me to prepare. 

How do you prepare for a themed party? How long does it take you to prepare? Thanks for stopping by!