The theme this year was "Under the Sea". I'm sure you can guess which movie we watched! There are alot of food options for this one, fish sticks, Goldfish crackers, gummy fish, Swedish fish and fish shaped pancakes to name a few. We mostly used the candy options as prizes for the activities.
We attended the fish feeding at Cabella's store. We had a 'fish pond' with not prizes, but numbered fish cut outs. The number corresponded to a "Fin it to Win It" activity. If the activity was done in a minute, the child was given a baggie of Swedish Fish". If the task was not completed in a minute, the prize was a gummy shark!
Of course we went swimming at the local reservoir and built sand castles. Did you know that if you mix sand with cornstarch and water, the results is a sand castle that will stay together?
I had decorated the basement family room as if it were "under the sea". We hung crepe paper streamers in a wave pattern and then hung fish cut-outs from fishing line. You don't see the fishing line so it looks like the fish are swimming.
We had a coin dive in a wading pool using some cheap snorkel sets that I bought at WalMart.
We made water globes in baby food jars using florists clay as the base for the plastic plants. This is done on the inside of the lid since you will be turning it upside down. We attached a colorful fish brad to the plant and then filled the jar with water, glycerin, and a few pinches of course glitter. but the lid on and add a bead of silicon caulk around the edge of the lid to keep it water tight and it's done!
The invitations were layers of paper that included sandpaper for the beach and blue paper for the water and lighter blue for the sky. A sticker of a sand pail and an umbrella were added and the info was written inside.