Games / Food ideas for Little Mermaid 4th Birthday party.

[Hangingbellyofbabylon]

It's dd's 4th birthday party in a couple of weeks and we're doing a little mermaid theme - up till now I haven't really bothered with party games other than pass the parcel as they have been too little but I reckon this year they'll be up for some serious games but have no idea where to start.. will be outdoors if weather is nice and will have a bouncy castle, also climbing frame and slide - I was thinking of somehow transforming the underneath bit of the climbing frame into a sort of underwater grotto type thing.

• Pin the tail on the mermaid?
• Fishing game (Cut out coloured paper fish, put a paper clip on the nose of each one, put in washing-up bowl. Give children a 'rod' (stick with string tied to end and magnet on end of string) and see how many fish they can catch in a set period of time (e.g. 1 minute))
• Get paddling pool out?
• Musical fish (like musical statues, only they have to swim round the room like fish till the music stops and then 'float'(stand still) without moving).
• Musical rocks (like musical chairs, but with rocks for the mermaids to sit on)

Was going to suggest a variation on 'sleeping lions'... 'Tonight you sleep wid de fishies'. But that would be just wrong, wouldn't it?

You could cut out mermaid shapes out of card and let the kids decorate the tails with glitter and sticky squares of coloured paper, etc. (Depends how 'crafty' you are... glitter makes me want to run for the hills, but I am a meanie spoilsport!)

IME when it comes to food they will just want to trough it down, so themed food will be a waste of effort. (Says the woman who once cut out sandwiches in little animal shapes!)

Oh and I was just going to suggest cutting sandwiches into fish shapes......

Lobster for lunch?

DS1 loves that film.
What about a 'Dinglehopper Hunt'? You could hide forks all over the garden for them to find.

great ideas - thanks. We've got 6 littlies from playgroup coming plus neices and nephews so will have about 10 under 5's - should be fun..! and my dd would love lobster for lunch, she's into all things fishy, especially tentacles etc so would probably love a big seafood platter but not sure how well it would go down with the rest of the kids