Great Tips for Putting Together a Kids' Beach Themed Party

What kid would not love having a beach themed party for their next birthday? Even if you do not live near the lake or beach, you can still plan a fun and exciting beach themed party for your child. You can find many each themed activities and games geared specially towards children of all ages. Here are some tips for planning the most memorable beach themed party for kids.

Beach Invitations:

Here is an inexpensive and cute idea for a beach invitation. Purchase enough inflatable beach balls for every person on your invitation lists. Then using a permanent marker, write all of the party details such as the time, date, place and location on the ball. When the recipient blows up the ball. He or she will see the invitation.

Another fun idea is to collect small plastic water bottles (8 ounces) with the lids, clean out and remove the labels. Fill each bottle with a small amount of play sand, some small seashells and a rolled up piece of paper with the party invitation written on it. These might be hard to mail, so you might want to consider delivering these.

Beach Activities:

You don't have to have an ocean or a big beach to take part in some great beach themed activities. You can adjust any of these activities to the amount of kid you are inviting and for their age. You can make these activities easier for younger kids are more difficult for older kids.

Beachcombing: What trip to the beach would be complete without a little beachcombing? If you are having a party at a real beach, then you can mark off several areas for beachcombing. Before the partygoers arrive bury inexpensive treasures underneath an inch or two of sand as the guests arrive. Give each child a shovel and the plastic pail and see how many treasures they can find in a certain amount of time.

You can still take part in the beachcombing activity if you are having your party at home. If you have a sandbox, simply bury the treasures in your sandbox for the kids to find. If not, consider getting two our three large plastic under the bed storage containers and filling them play sand. You can take them outside in the yard and allow the kids to find their buried treasures. Use items such as fake gold coins, beaded necklaces, seashells, pennies and smooth glass rocks.

Sunscreen Relay: if you are having your party outside consider having a sunscreen relay race. Divide the kids into two or three teams and line them up on one end of the yard with a bottle of sunscreen at the other end. On "go", and the first person on each team run in the opposite in the yard and cover their entire body with sunscreen. They must run back to the other side and tag the next person. The team that has all players covered with sunscreen first wins. Not only is this a fun game but it also ensures everybody is protected from the sun.

Crafts: Kids always enjoy making a craft or two at birthday parties are so many ideas for beach themed crafts that you can incorporate into your birthday party. What fun idea is to daiquiri, picture frames and take each child's picture sitting on a beach blanket with a large sun hat and sunglasses. You can also decorate inexpensive visors with craft foam or markers. How about letting each child make a pet shell? Purchase large shells and give each child some glue, glitter glue, sequins, and googly eyes. Let their imaginations run wild making their new pet shell.

Food:

It is always easy to come up with ideas for food that relates to a beach themed party. You can't go wrong with some frozen slush drinks, hot dogs and chips. Ask children bring their own beach towel and let them sit on the ground while they eat. This makes cleanup easy and quick.

For the cake, consider making beach themed cupcakes. All you need to do by cake mix and make cupcakes according to the package directions. They can make "water" out of white tub icing and blue food coloring. Use Teddy Grahams stuck inside of Gummy Savers to "float" in the water. Another idea is to use crushed graham crackers to look like sand in add small drink umbrellas to each cupcake. You can also make edible aquariums by whipping up some blue Jell-O, pouring it into clearer classes or cuts in adding gummy worms.

The possibilities are endless, and you have a beach themed birthday party for your child. Use some of these activity ideas and add some beachy music. You will have a fun and memorable party that everyone will remember.