Little Mermaid party: Food and Cake

I really tried to keep this party fairly simple, especially when it came to the food.  We decided to have the party at 3:00, so we didn't have to serve a meal.  We served a big meal at our past two birthday parties, so I was ready for something more low key this year.

I went with snacks that were loosely attached to the Mermaid/Under the Sea theme and also were easy to prepare. 

We had Coral Skewers, which were just green grapes on a stick, and I served a (storebought) cream cheese dip with them.  I thought the grapes looked really good with all the other decor on the table.

We also had a few varieties of goldfish.  I already had these fish dishes, which I bought for Audrey's goldfish themed 2nd birthday party.  I was happy to be able to use them again.

And we served Seaweed Sticks, which were just storebought veggie straws.  These were a last minute addition, because I remembered the morning of the party that I bought these purple cups (through a cheap online deal) and I needed something to put in them!

The only thing that I "made" for the party were these Sea Snails, or mini crescent dogs.  I bought little smokies and wrapped them in crescent rolls. 

I like the look of all the colored candy that is so popular right now, but I didn't really want to serve a table full of candy.  So I bought some gumballs and candy sticks to put on the table, just because I liked the way they looked!  I labeled them Under the Sea Sweets.  No one really ate them, so it was probably a waste of money.  But they looked cute with everything else.

And now for the cake!

In keeping with the low key theme for all the food, I did not make the cake.  I enjoy making cakes, but they also really stress me out!  It was so nice to be able to go to bed early the night before the party, rather than staying up late trying to make and decorate a cake while trying to avoid a disaster.

I gave our cake decorator a picture of the cake feature in this party as inspiration.  I love the way this cake turned out!  We put a little toy Ariel on it to make Audrey happy.  But I really liked the simple look of the cake, the way it looked like a mermaid's tale without actually being a mermaid's tale.  It was huge too, and we had plenty to feed everyone at the party and at our small group the next night!