This guest post today comes from Kristal, my friend over at the fabulous LA mom blog PierToPeer.net, about the darling beach theme birthday party she threw for her daughter’s 4th birthday last summer. I thought she had the cutest ideas on how to throw a super cute beach birthday party. Here is what she wrote…
Last year for my daughter Ella’s 4th birthday we decided to celebrate on the beach. Living in Manhattan Beach and having a summer birthday, it was the perfect setting for her big day.
We set the tone for the shindig by starting with the invitations. They were custom designed by Sahar Robertson of DesignsBySaidi on Etsy. She created a cartoon image of Ella from a photo I took of her. It was so cute and different, a hit with the invitees!
She also created the sandwich toppers and the gift bag tags.
For a party favor, we put together a special CD for the kids to take home.
Sahar helped design a CD cover for “Ella’s Summer Mix” to match.
We played the CD throughout the party to give it an extra fun vibe – nothing like some fun beach tunes to add to the party atmosphere!
Now onto the decorating ~ there are so many cute things you can do with a beach theme!
We went for a lunch menu of tuna, chicken salad and turkey sandwiches for the adults and mini sea shaped tuna and PB&J tea sandwiches for the kiddies provided by Lisa’s Bon Appétit in Torrance.
I also had pasta and fruit salads (made by yours truly) which were displayed in sand buckets and served with a shovel.
For yummy treats we had chips and salsa, goldfish, saltwater taffy and an assortment of other candies.
I named the food items with a fun sea theme of course on stationery from Michaels. Some examples are “Crunchy Coral” for the veggie platter, “Deep Sea Kelp” for the pesto pasta salad and “Fish & Chips” for the chips and goldfish. And my favorite, the “SAND-wiches!”
And in lieu of a traditional birthday cake we went for sea decorated sugar cookies also provided by Lisa’s Bon Appétit. The cookies were a lot more manageable than cutting a cake on the beach.
I had canopies with colorful paper lanterns from Cost Plus World Market up for shade and lots of bubbles, beach balls and they even had a water balloon bonanza!
Planning a birthday party is one of my favorite things I look forward to doing every year. Having a theme in mind definitely makes the project that much easier and also a lot of fun.
I am currently working on her upcoming 5th birthday. A backyard campout, “Camp 5 Rocks!” Stay tuned on Pier to Peer for the upcoming feature.