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Hey Dude! It's a Beach Party!If you're organising a Beach Party for your child's next birthday, you're in for a treat!
There are so many ideas for this theme. Bring the beach to your own backyard. Or, if you’re lucky enough to live by the water, treat your birthday child and their guests to an afternoon of sun, surf, and summertime treats!
If you've decided to go it at home, the set up is fun and easy. We've got lots of ideas for decorations, invitations, Games, costumes, food, prizes, Cakes, party bags, Beach Party Crafts.... and much more to make your Beach Party the most talked about party this year!
Birthday in a Box have some really colourful beach party invitations, or... You could send them invites in a little glass bottle from the dollar store or, if you're on a budget, put sand and shells in it with the secret message: "You're invited!!!!" Put mini umbrellas in too! If you really crafty, send your message on a Coconut. Paint on your brief invite message then hand deliver. Print or write your invitation and adhere it to a bar of surfboard wax to appear as a label. Paper sunglasses make great invitations to a beach party! Write "Digby Marshall's Beach Party" in one lense, the party details on the other lense. Put the address along one of the ear pieces and what to bring...and you're done. We've made up some of our own Beach Party invitations for you to choose from. Feel free to Download and print them for Free.
Fill a plastic pool with sand and sand toys (buckets, shovels, molds, etc). Fill another plastic pool with Jolly jellyfish, made with minature balloons filled with water. They'll wibble and wobble like jelly! You cake make Floating Jellyfish with helium filled balloons or ordinary ballons. Using double-sided sticky tape, create tentacles by sticking long strips of crepe paper or cellophane to hang from your jellyfish. You may even want to draw a face on your jellyfish. Balloons filled with helium make perfect floating jellyfish. You can also use ordinary balloons. Just hang them from string and decorate them! Really go to town - I mean the beach - by hanging a fish net
Use bright coloured table decorations have sunny yellow or beach themed plates, cups and napkins. Sprinkle the center of the table with sand, sea shells, and plastic sea animals. Add a bit of sparkle with glass rocks. 
The first person from each team must get down on hands and knees on the start line. The objective is to roll the egg to the finish line using any part of the head only. No hands allowed. Once you get to the finish line you must roll the egg into the cup which is placed on the ground on it's side. (You may want to add some sand to the plastic cup to keep it in place). A helper can collect each of the eggs from the cups as they are rolled in. The winning side is the fastest to get all their eggs into the cups. Water Burst The object of this games is try not to burst the balloon. You need 1 water balloon for each pair of players. Each guest takes a partner and stands face to face. Start 1 metre away from each other. The 2 players throw the balloon to their partner and try to catch the balloon. If you don't or the balloon bursts, you and your partner sit down. If you catch it, 1 person takes a step back. The last pair standing wins. Hula Hoop Contest See who can twirl the hula hoop for the longest time.
Water Balloon Volleyball Divide children into two groups. Pair them off and give each pair a beach towel. One side begins by placing a water balloon in the center of their towel. Each child holds onto one two corners of the towel in their hands. The object is to toss the water balloon over the net with the opposing side catchingthe balloon in their towel. The volley continues until one side misses and the balloon breaksgiving the other team a point. First team to 15 wins. Variation: If you do not own a volleyball you can use a broom stick or piece of wooden dowel as the net. *HINT: Store balloons in a bucket with water. The water prevents the balloons from sticking to each other and popping. Orange Relay Divide the group into two or more teams of about 6 people each. It is more fun if you have guy, girl, guy, girl. Give one apple or orange to the leader of each team. On the word "go" the leader must stick the orangee under his chin and without using hands, place it under the chin of the next player in line. The winners are the first team to go down the line. If the orange gets dropped it must start from the front of the line again. It's hilarious to watch!!! Poop The Potato Form two teams, with a potato for each player. Put a bucket or small rubbish bin at the goal line. Each person places their potato between their thighs. The object is for each team member to hobble down to their bucket and drop the potato into it. They may not use their hands except to reposition the potato between their legs if it should fall too soon. The first team to "poop" all their potatoes in their bucket wins. You can substitute potatoes for fruit with this game. Beach Bowling Make 10 pins by filling a cup with moist sand (add water if the sand is too dry to hold a shape). Carefully turn the cup over and lift it off. Create the pins in a triangle with one pin in front, two pins in the next row, three in the next, and four in the back row. Draw a line in the sand about 6 or 8 feet from the pins. Take turns standing behind the line and rolling a softball or other small ball toward the pins to knock them over. Each player gets to roll the ball twice. Count how many pins you knock over, set them up again and keep score in the sand.
Sand Tic-Tac-Toe Make a nine-square grid in the sand and draw the X's and O's with driftwood. If you have enough people, make teams and ask guests to sit in the squares. Hopscotch To give this a seaside theme, each player can collect a beach marker to toss: a seashell, a plastic shovel or a colorful flip-flop. Splat! For kids, there is definitely something exciting about dropping things just to see them go splat. This game indulges that impulse without the indoor mess. To play, you will need a paved surface (such as a driveway), a box of miniature balloons filled with water (all close to the same size), some chalk and a measuring tape. Taking turns, each child holds a balloon high overhead, then heaves it onto the hot pavement, trying to make the biggest wet mark possible. The water will quickly evaporate, so two scorekeepers outline the wet mark in chalk and put the child's initials next to it, as well as the size of the splat at its widest point.
Balloon Shave Kids who watch in fascination as their fathers lather up will love this game. Give each child a balloon, a razor (without the blade). Slather a blob of shaving cream all over the balloon. Using the (bladeless) razor, each child must shave the foam off the balloon. The winner ends up with an unpopped balloon and lots of cool shaving cream on his or her hands! Hot Potato Using a pin, poke a hole in a balloon before you fill it with water, so it has a slow but steady leak. Now, three or more players stand in a circle and toss the spraying balloon around from player to player. The object is to toss the balloon to the next player before it runs out of water. Fans Away For this game, you will need an ordinary air-filled balloon and enough homemade paper fans for all the guests. Sitting in a wide circle of players, one launches the balloon into play. Each player uses his fan to blow it away as it comes toward them. If a player's fan touches the balloon more than once or if the balloon touches the ground, the player is out. With five or six fans going at once, who needs air conditioning? Coconut Bowling Place a bowling pin in the center of a hula hoop on the floor. Using coconuts for bowling balls, try rolling the coconut into the hoop without knocking over the pin. Sand Play Provide buckets, shovels, toy cars, etc. Scavenger hunts Have your guests collect rocks, feathers, wood, shells, any beach creatures. Volleyball What's a Beach Party with Volleyball? This game might be easier to set up if you're on the beach. Frisbee Horseshoes Kite Flying If these aren't enough, here are more Games. Prizes for games could be sunglasses, sunscreen, water guns, sweets, beach balls, sand toys, sun-visor, bubbles, kites - here's a great selection of inexpensive prizes kids would like that would add to the beach atmosphere. Fill colourful, plastic sand pails with chips, pretzel rods and popcorn. Surfboard sandwiches Cut your sandwiches into surfboard shapes Fish Bites Crumbed fish pieces that just need neating up in the oven.
Summer Salsa 5 large mangoes 7 medium tomatoes 1 medium onion 1 bunch cilantro 1 Tbsp (15 ml) fresh basil, finely chopped 1 Tbsp (15 ml) tamari sauce 1/2 tsp (2 ml) spicy herbal salt Chop all ingredients and place in a large bowl. Mix thoroughly and chill for at least one hour; ingredients should have enough time to blend together. Season to taste with tamari or herbal salt justbefore serving. Serve with Goldfish Crackers. Potato Salad Chips
Don't forget the cocktail umbrellas! Stay true to your Beach Party with a Seaside Themed Cake !!! Easy and tasty!
It's always fun to send your guests home with happy memories and a memento of the event.
You can easily get all these beach themed trinkets at Birthday in a Box (my favourite supplier) and make your own like we did, or buy them already made up with inflatable beach balls, stickers, and more. Small plastic buckets are cheap at $2 dollar stores. These can be filled with inexpensive play sunglasses, plastic lifeguard whistle, spade, small bottle of suntan lotion, packet of fishy crackers or some colorful sea shell sweets. Sea Shell Frames
You will need:
Brush craft glue on wooden frames, then use an assortment of colored sands to create unique designs. Add the finishing touches by gluing on a border of small shells. Sand Art
Collect clean, fine sand and strain it to remove any bits and pieces from it.
You can colour the sand with powder paint - using a variety of different colours - or for those on a budget, regular sand works just as well. Keep the different colours of sand in separate containers. Once you have your coloured sand made you can carefully pour sand into a glass jar in layers to make a decoration.... or
Heck, you can even go the easier route if you're short on time and buy a sand art kit kit for your beach party. Shell Paintings
Paint pictures on the inside of each shell with acrylic paint, being careful to let each colour dry before adding the next for a crisp picture, or allow the colours to blend for an abstract splash of colour. Arrange finished shells out in the sun to dry.
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and fill it with plastic sea creatures. Drape it between a couple of trees in the yard or from the ceiling inside the party area.
Dick Dale, some 
reggae or the Hudu Gurus. Make sure you have at least one colourful beach umbrella standing nice and bright. 
- (you know, those cheap little paper unbrellas that you see draped over the side of a glass as its contents are being sipped leisurely whilst lazing on a palm beach.....)
