Listen. There are only a few years where I get to pick the theme for Sawyer’s birthday parties. And I’m pretty sure this was the last year that I get to (she’s super into Puppy Dog Pals). But can we be honest with each other for a second here? Which theme is cooler: this, or Puppy Dog Pals? That’s what I thought too.

The good thing for me was that after coming up with this theme, she got really into sea turtles. So overall, I think I pleased her very much. (Unintentional mom win)

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We just moved into our new place ten days before this party, and basically reno’d the whole first floor. So planning this party was done on the fly, and I’m pretty sure my mom and friend hated me for it. But thankfully for me, they actually do love me and helped me put the whole thing together.

I started planning before our move by ordering balloons on Aliexpress, because they can take weeks to come in. Literally, you never know what you’re going to get. But for the prices, it’s worth trying. I ordered the turquoise garland balloons, the giant 2, and the “two the sea” mini letter balloons all from them. Thankfully, they all turned out exactly how I wanted them to!

Note to self (and you): I read on Pinterest that you can spray paint the letter balloons, so I didn’t order blue ones. I figured I could paint them turquoise no matter what. Thankfully, I ordered two sets of each letter, because guess what. You can’t paint these, I found out the hard way.

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For food we served sandwiches along with all of the ‘seafood’ we came up with. The sea glass was even edible (thanks to Pinterest for that recipe – finally something worked the way it was supposed to). We also served Health-Ade Kombucha because let’s be honest with ourselves, it’s amazing.

For desserts, we (and by we, I mean my mom and my friend) made oyster cookies and sand dollar cookies. They were both really easy (says me), but time consuming.

Her cake was my biggest surprise. Did I want to order a fancy expensive cake? Yes. Do I really have the budget for that? No. So let’s get real here, my local grocery store CAME THROUGH. I was so pleasantly surprised by how cool it turned out that I want to order cakes every month. I can think of something to celebrate every month, can’t I?

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I wanted a pretty sequin tablecloth so badly, but have you ever looked for one? A) they’re hard to find, and 2) they’re SO expensive. So here’s a mom hack for you: go to the fabric store and buy two yards of the fabric you like most. That’s it. We just draped it over our table and voila!

We then literally covered all the surfaces in seashells and sea glass that we found at the Dollar Tree, and found cute jellyfish lanterns at Party City. I even found whale tail (or mermaid, but I was trying to steer clear of the Mermaid theme) hats at the Dollar Tree!

We also found this pretty pinata at Target, which left me with a whole bowl full of candy to eat after the party. Great. (Next time either more kids or less candy.)

One of the cutest decor pieces was the clear balloons (bubbles) hanging from the mantle. Note to you: don’t blow them up the day before. They turn more white than when you first blow them up.

Balloon garland: easy, but also time consuming. You can buy strips to just pop the balloons into, but we do it the ‘old-fashioned’ way: blow up balloons to different sizes (even if they’re all the same size, just blow them big, medium, and small). Tie three together with a piece of string. Then tie that string to a longer one that will be your main garland string. That’s it!

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One of my favorite items was the starfish wands that I made for the party. Literally SO easy. I hot glued a stick to a starfish, spray painted it gold, and tied ribbons to the bottom!

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Sawyer loved the whole party (even her DIY shirt I made the day of). I think all of the sugar may have been the reason she enjoyed herself so much, but I take what I can get over here. Whatever makes this girl happy makes my mama heart happy too.