Mythology Birthday Party!

Percy Jackson was the springboard for our party theme, so we had to give
"The Lightning Thief" a good display. We tried to use a lot of blue in our decorating.
The shells, starfish and blue marbles (bubbles!) in the Mason jar are all in honor of the Poseidon/sea theme.

Big Girl has been Percy Jackson-obsessed this summer. If you don't know, Percy Jackson is the main character in a series of books by author Rick Riordan. The books have a Greek mythology theme, so when it was birthday party time, Big Girl really wanted a mythology party.

So... mythology? Yeah, not exactly a theme the local party supply store stocks on its shelves. She also wanted a "pool party," so we devised the name "Poseidon Pool Party" for one big water theme heavy on the color blue. (Apparently Percy Jackson's mother made him blue food for holidays and birthdays. We found blue-wrapped Kisses, cookies and creme flavor; had blue cupcakes; and used blue as our color scheme.) We sent out invitations with all the pertinent information, as well as a free clip art image, a cartoonish Poseidon, in the middle. I printed them on regular 8.5x11 white printer paper -- no fancy stuff this year!

Blue plates (and matching napkins, unseen) from Walmart;
blue dots and stripes favor bags from Target;
and blue candy Kisses, cookies and creme flavor. (
And yes, Swedish fish from Poseidon's ocean!)

I searched Pinterest for ideas, looking for anything with the tags mythology, Percy Jackson, blue and pool. I found several things, but nothing stood out as a great resource. First, most of the Percy Jackson parties seemed to be boy-centered and heavy on the sword-fighting. We were inviting a bunch of young ladies whom I'm not sure are as heavily involved in the whole mythology thing as much as my own daughter. Plus, she wanted the pool theme as much as mythology.

I've found that with house birthday parties, it's sometime best to keep it simple -- not too many activities, since the kids really just want to hang out and play. And since swimming was going to be involved, that would take up a good deal of time. (If this was a winter birthday party, I would need more activities, I think!)

Our party was from 1 to 4 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon. I came up with two quick activities to kick the party off. The first? Toilet paper togas!

Don't buy expensive toilet paper for this project...

I thought about all those bridal showers where you make a bridal gown out of toilet paper, and figured togas would be easier and just a silly thing to do. I'm not really sure if they really liked the whole thing that much, but one little girl did:

Bunny Twin's toga!
It's kind of funny to hear two-year-old twins repeatedly
saying "Toga! Toga!" Is their future in Animal House?

Then I reverted back to a simple party idea with a twist: Pin the Snake on Medusa!

This was definitely a trial-and-error sort of thing. I realized, in hindsight, that Medusa's head was probably too big, making it pretty easy to pin a snake near her head. But who cares, right? Just silly fun.

Dollar Tree posterboard (2 sheets for $1)...
Found a picture of Medusa on line and made a primitive drawing of her in pencil.
Outlined it in black Sharpie, added colored eyes...
Cut snakes out of second piece of posterboard and attached them with masking tape.

Then it was pool time...

Followed by some water balloons, which turned into a sort-of Capture the Flag (or capture the beach towel) game... And, finally, FOOD!

Cupcakes!

We had some junk food, of course, followed by ice cream sundaes with a toppings bar, and cupcakes. I made blue-and-white sort-of tie-dyed cupcakes with waves of blue and white frosting, with round sprinkle bubbles. (Just a white cake box mix, with canned frosting tinted blue. Easy stuff and kid-pleasing stuff.)

Of course, Poseidon, the LEGO mini-figure, was our decoration. We had to feel our way through mini-fig packages in Toys'R'Us to find him, but we figured it out on the first try. So happy to have a cheap cake topper which can be used later!

I was trying to be somewhat frugal on her party, although it still involved spending more than anticipated. That said, I do plan a post of frugal birthday party tips in the near future. Stay tuned!

Next up is a party for these two:

I'm starting planning early, to shop for supplies on sale. Their birthday is in December, which cuts not only into the busy time of year, but the holiday budget.