shark ocean party

Last week my son turned 5 and we celebrated with a shark themed birthday party. The plan was to fill the backyard with a plastic pool, water guns, bubbles, and other water related paraphernalia. The kiddos would break for a little shark themed lunch and then go back to their water play. It would be simple and fun for everyone.

Well, the night before the party my son ran into another little boy and landed himself in the ER for 3 layers of stitches. The bad news: no water party. So that morning, with a little help from my Facebook friends, we scrambled to put together some inside games. With just a few shark toys, we put together these games:

sharks and minnows (without being in the pool)

hot shark (like hot potato, just with a shark beanie baby)

hide and seek sharks (we hid 10 small sharks around the playroom)

drop the shark in the bottle (again using the tiny sharks)

Once the games were over, we headed to the table for a little dinner. On the menu was Peanut butter and Jellyfish Sandwiches and Shark Fin hummus. The hummus was topped with a bit of sour cream, shredded cheese and then a tortilla chip. Next we had shark jello where each child found a surprise shark gummie inside and cupcakes. (I used foam to make the fins on the cupcakes because it was cheaper than fondant.)

After a few presents, the kids got to visit the Shark Bait candy bar. Instead of making goodie bags, I let the kids make their own by visiting the candy bar. The bags were a simple white lunch sacks and the shark printables were purchased on etsy. (Usually I don’t purchase printables. I make them myself, but due to the accident and the unexpected trip to the ER, party prep got a little crazy!)

On the candy bar were various kinds of Shark Bait: flavors of goldfish, swedish fish, gummie worms, and gummie octopi. (All purchased at Wal-mart.)

We had a few fish eggs…mint M&Ms, and blue raspberry jelly beans. Green and white “life preservers” were provided in the event of a shark attack. (The jelly beans and life preservers were purchased at a bulk candy store.)

I spent $37 on this party. Which included the printables, candy, food, two packs of tissue paper, blue and green paper products and one pack of plastic sharks! We had 14 children at the party and fun was had by all!

Kim Sorgius

Kim is just a girl, crazy in love with Jesus. She's a single mother of 4, a passionate homeschooler and life-long student. After teaching 8 years in public school, she traded her M.A. in Early Childhood for sippy cups and homeschool co-ops. Kim is the owner and editor of The Homeschool Village and Not Consumed where she encourages others to rest victoriously in the hands of God, rather than allowing life's difficult circumstances to consume.