We were all about pirates & mermaids this year when it came to birthday party planning! From eye patches to sea shells, here is how I put together a pirates & mermaids birthday party!

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This year, I decided to have a combined birthday party for my kids. Since we just recently returned from our Disney cruise, we are still all about pirates and mermaids around here.

Here are a few pictures from the party to (hopefully) give you some inspiration when planning your next event!

Decorations

Rather than combining the decorations on each table, I decided to make some tables pirate theme and the other tables mermaid theme.

For the pirate tables, I used lanterns and bird skeletons for the centerpieces.

At each place setting, I used a palm leaf placemat, skull and crossbones plates, parrot napkins and gold straws.

For the mermaid tables, I started with natural/white placemats. I used mermaid plates, cups, the cutest seahorse napkins and seashell plates.

The centerpieces I used blue iridescent fabric runners with fish nets. I scattered sand dollars and sea shells on the tables too.

Food

In keeping with the theme, what better snack that some seaweed? We love these salty seaweed snacks.

Pirate’s Booty is a pretty well-loved snack amongst kids.

Liquid Death water is another great on-theme item and better for the environment than having plastic water bottles for guests.

Desserts

The cake turned out absolutely perfectly!

If you are in the San Diego area, check out Sweet Revenge Bakery. I have used their bakery for all of our cakes these last few years and they never disappoint!

For a mermaid dessert, Concha Queens delivered exactly what I wanted!

These Mexican sweet-bread conchas looked like the cutest seashells and even had shimmery gold dust on them.

For serving the party food, I used these adorable metal shell bowls and smaller, white shell bowls.

Crafts

Kids love to get messy so painting always seems to go over really well at birthday parties.

These cute sea shells and pirates made for cute gifts for them to bring home too!

Favors

For the mermaid favors, I used wood craft treasure chests, mermaid slime, pearl necklaces, a small glass bottle with sand and seashells.

In order for the guests to paint their treasure chests at home, I also included paint brushes, paints and glitter too!

We also gave everyone these cute seashell wands and some glittery mermaid tattoos.

For the pirate lovers, I used these Muslin bags which contained a telescope, sword, eye patch, treasure map, gold chocolate coins, a Scribble Scrubbie safari pet, and the cutest pirate tattoos!