My son is in love with the show Octonauts on Disney Junior. And I don't mind because I find it freaking adorable. I actually get a little excited every time I see there is a new episode (Christmas special, whooo hoooo!) So this year for his 3rd birthday I asked what kind of birthday he wanted. Of course the answer was Octonauts. I loved this idea, but I knew that I had never seen the Octonauts section at Party City. Started as a book in Canada and later a show for the BBC, there is literally NO Octonauts merchandise in the US. The few little action figures I could buy for him were from the UK, and if you want an entire play set, please set aside your weekly paycheck, because it's going to be ridiculously expensive. I knew I wanted to give him his party, so I had to get creative. Here are some highlights from the party so if your little one is a fan, you can do it too without breaking the bank! 1. BALLOONS!!! I bought about 30 turquoise and orange (Octonauts colors) helium balloons and had them strung up around the room. I also purchased blue balloons to toss around on the floor to simulate water. The little kiddies at the party loved that they could actually kick and play with the balloons rather than them just floating in the air. 2. ETSY!!!! My other favorite site (2nd only to Pinterest) allowed me to purchase some small inexpensive Octonauts items that people had handmade, which I actually like more than purchasing from a large party store chain. The items are more unique and personalized and I like the idea of keeping small businesses and mom's working out of their homes in business. I purchased these Octonauts cupcake toppers from Michelle's Party Shop and they turned out great, she even personalized them with Cash's name! 3. Crafty Fun for Kids My husband was a little worried about keeping the kids at the party happy and occupied, he assumed that 3 to 5 year olds were only going to be happy at a place like Chuck E Cheese. I had other ideas though. I made sure to have lots of crafts and fun things for the kids to do. This included things like a "Make Your Own Jellyfish" station. I precut all the materials needed and showed the mom's how to help their little ones put together their jellyfish so that they could take them home with them. Cash and I made "fish biscuits" the night before with sugar cookie dough and used a glaze recipe I found online. I supplied frosting and food safe pens for kids to decorate their fish biscuit any way they chose. I supplied some Octonauts books to read and puzzles for the kids to play with throughout the party. Cash already had several Octonauts books that we found online, and I ordered an Octonauts puzzle from a UK toy website for $11. It also doubled as a birthday present. Score! 4. It's All in the Details I tried to get creative on how to incorporate undersea decor since we were so limited on actual merchandise. My husband made a couple awesome posters for the Octonauts "Octoalert" emblem that worked out really great. He just took some bright orange poster board and free handed the outline, then took random bowls and cups from around the kitchen to create the right size cut outs for the eyes and mouth. He then cut it out and placed it on another white poster board. They are still hanging in Cash's room and he loves that he has his own "Octoalert." I found an awesome idea on Pinterest from the blog Knitty Mummy for 'medical bag' favors. For anyone that does not know the show, one of the characters is a medic and carries around a medical bag that looks pretty much exactly like this. I scored the treat boxes on an online party supply store, and on the blog I found had a downloadable PDF of the bandage. I simply cut them out and pasted them on the box. I filled the boxes with Swedish Fish, fish stickers, bubbles, and other sea themed goodies. The treat boxes can be found here. I had several daiquiri glasses lying around, since I am 8 months pregnant, they are not being used for daiquiri's anytime soon! I decided to fill them with a few pebbles and add a goldfish to each glass, to act as a weight for the balloons. This might be one of my favorite details from the party. At about 15 cents for each fish, it was a very cheap and fun detail. :) There were many other details that I wanted to do but just ran out of time. I wanted to hang tons of green streamers from the ceiling to resemble seaweed, or blue for water. I wanted to get some pink balloons for the ground and add googly eyes for giant jellyfish. I did end up making blue jello with Swedish fish inside, but the Swedish fish turned to mush so I would probably not do that again. Last but not least, I had my talented friends at Lamarand Style Photography there to photograph the details for me. We set up a "photo booth" type setting for family pictures for all the guests. I was so happy that this idea was a hit. We got a lot of good photos of our guests and they also took the time to photograph the details of the party, which I was so thankful for (all photo credits in this blog are courtesy of Lamarand Style.) I put a lot of time and effort into the details, and as you all know, kids birthday parties are like a tornado. I was happy to be able to look back at the pictures when everything settled down. I hope that this blog is helpful for other parents planning an Octonauts party. I found blogs to be so helpful when planning this party since there is limited products available. I hear in March of 2013 Octonauts merchandise is suppose to be available in the US, FINALLY. Just in time for... Easter? Ugh.
