What's Buzzing with the Brasfields: Caroline's Ariel Birthday Party

It finally came! The birthday party that Caroline has been talking about for almost 7 months! Ha! Caroline has literally been asking for an Ariel (from The Little Mermaid) birthday party since just after Tyler's 4th birthday and she has never wavered. She was so aware that Tyler had a Superheros party and just knew she wanted Ariel at hers. It was so funny and became all she could really talk about at home and at school. Even strangers knew Caroline was having an Ariel 3rd birthday. Haha!

So, with all that advance notice, we knew we had to do it up right. Having a January birthday really limits our options when it comes to parties. We had her other 2 parties out of the house but chose to have this one at home to cut down on costs because we really wanted to have Ariel actually come to the party. We invited our friends and a few of Caroline's favorites from her class at school and wouldn't you know that every single person RSVPed yes except for 1 family?! So we had over 50 people with parents inside our house! It was insane! We moved every piece of furniture we could in our dining room and den to make room.

The party was a 4p and our kids were SO excited to see all the decorations up when they got up from their naps!!

She picked up her crown and pretty much never put it down the whole party!

I had a Little Mermaid dress made from a Matilda Jane top. We layered it up for the party since it was cold outside. I had it made a little big so she can wear it when we go to Disney in the fall.

The food and kids tables were in the dining room. For the food, I keep it simple with finger foods but tried to stick to The Little Mermaid theme. We had shell cupcakes with fun toppers I got on Etsy, "dinglehopper" cheese with cute tiny forks, grape seaweed skewers, and "(gold)fish and chips". We had the tables set up for the treasure chest craft that the kids could do once they arrived. Glitter glue and jewel stickers everywhere! Plus they had pearls and chocolate coins as treasures for inside their chest. We also had The Little Mermaid movie playing in the den that kids could watch, too.

Once Uncle Brian arrived, Caroline wanted nothing to do with anyone else.

After about 30 minutes of crafting, we herded everyone to the den to get ready for the main event - Ariel, herself!! (Side note - I have to say, when Ariel arrived in a wheelchair outside our house, I was a bit panicked. But I was told that Ariel can't walk with her fin so the first part would be with her in the wheelchair until she made a call to King Triton to get her human legs! Oh my! Amazingly, none of the kids asked what was wrong with Ariel so that was good...but some parents were thoroughly confused at first. Ha! For as much as Caroline talked about having Ariel coming to her birthday party, she was pretty shy with her in person. I still think it was the highlight of her year so far. (Just wait until we go to Disney later this year!! I think she and Tyler will both die of excitement!)

Russ wheeling Ariel in! Ha!

Ariel sang and danced with the kids and then took pictures with anyone who wanted one. We had a little photo backdrop set up for this.

We tried to get a group picture and this was the best we got!

Making the call for her legs!

After pictures, the kids headed back to the dining room to eat. Once Ariel finished up with pics, she joined us in singing Happy Birthday to Caroline and then it was cupcake time!

This was how she took her first bite of cake! Ha!

Sweet friends from school (minus Zoe!)

The party started wrapping up after everyone finished their cupcakes and we said goodbye to Ariel and our friends. In addition to the treasure chest they made, each kid got a ring pop on the way out the door. Also, instead of gifts for the birthday girl, we asked for gifts that we could donate to the toy closet at Make-A-Wish of the Midsouth. We got so many toys to take!

All the toys for Make-A-Wish!

We had quite a bit of cleaning up to do to get our house back in order...especially since we moved all the furniture AND the kids found our playroom and proceeded to trash it! I'm not sure there have every been that many kids in one tiny playroom before ever! Ha! My foot was pretty much toast by this point and I was grateful to family and friends who pitched in to clean up while I rested. Parties at home are exhausting!!