Beware! It's a shark birthday party!

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. If you decide to make a purchase, I will make a commission, at no additional cost to you. See my full disclosure policy to learn more. Thank you to Oriental Trading Company for providing some of the items mentioned below.

My little boys' birthdays are 3 days apart. This year Dylan turned 3 and Christian turned 7 and they agreed that they would like a shark birthday party to celebrate. Their birthdays are in December, so I wish I had known that this is what they wanted during the summer months when this kind of party stuff would be available in store. Fortunately for me, Oriental Trading Company has a ton of party supplies that are available year round, and I can create additional fun party decor with my Cricut Maker. So, this kids shark party turned out pretty awesome even though we had snow the previous week.

Here's a quick video to see our shark party in action:

You'll be able to find all of the shark party supplies and Cricut project files that I used to create this birthday party in list form at the end of this post.

I had a few items left over from my own Mermaid birthday party. Hey,don't judge me! I know you watched the Little Mermaid on repeat when you were a kid too. So I already had a seashell serving bowl, fishing net, and dolphin balloons. Ready to dive in? Let's go!

Shark Party Decorations

This shark party started off with an "underwater" canopy made with a blue plastic table cloth and sea creature shadow cutouts. The kids had so much fun pointing up at the different turtles, octopus, and shark silhouettes.

The buffet table was one of the major underwater shark scene setters. I love this 9' x 6' shark backdrop from Oriental Trading. The boys thought that it was so awesome while they watched me put it up on the wall. They both kept screaming "ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, shark!" So much fun! I'd like to be able to get the creases out though. It's a problem I frequently come across with plastic. So, if you know a good way to get crease marks out of plastic banners, or table cloths, I'm all ears.

To complement the buffet table, I made this dolphin balloon column. Christian and I got sucked into watching YouTube videos on balloon columns one day, so I was pretty excited with how this turned out.

Also floating by on the buffet table was this sea turtle cardboard stand-up from Oriental Trading. I think I might throw another under the sea party just because of him!

As for the food, I wanted to stick with the ocean theme, and keep it kid friendly.

Shark Birthday Party Food

fish sticks
butterflied shrimp
"seaweed" spinach dip
"seashell" pasta salad
"driftwood" pretzel sticks
"shark bait" gummy worms
goldfish crackers
"ocean water" lemonade

The kids really liked these shark plastic cups from Oriental Trading. They were perfect for serving goldfish crackers in.

For dessert we had cake, cupcakes, and shark cookies.

I made these cookies using Sugar Spun Run's super easy royal icing technique. I usually spend at least 5 minutes on each cookie when I'm decorating with royal icing, but these took less than 2 minutes for ALL of them. Once the icing was dry, I think it was another 5 minutes to airbrush the sharks onto the cookies by using the stencils I made with my Cricut Maker. You can find the Design Space shark stencil files here.

I also used my Cricut Maker to make the ocean waves cupcake wrappers and shark cupcake toppers. For the toppers I cut out circles slightly bigger than the Shark stickers I got from Oriental Trading. A little hot glue and some toothpicks and we had easy shark cupcakes!

For the shark cake topper, once again I used my Cricut Maker. I welded a "happy birthday" file with a shark image and love how it turned out. You can find this cake topper ready to cut out here.

For the backdrop on our a dessert table, I used mint green paper fans from Oriental Trading. Paper fans make such a huge difference to any party setup and they're so festive. I also included a shark tooth birthday banner made with my Cricut Maker. (cut file here)

For the shark birthday party tablescape, I used my fishing net instead of a table cloth, and set the table with paper plates in different shades of blue and grey.

Part of the table decor were these shark favor boxes. They were also made with my Cricut Maker (cut file here) and decorated with the shark stickers and these shark tooth necklaces from Oriental Trading.

Thanks to my Cricut Maker and those awesome Oriental Trading Co. shark stickers, I also customized the napkin rings and drink straws.

During the party, we had a few games in addition to the usual little boys' shenanigans. We played pin the fin on the shark (made with the Cricut Maker - cut file here.)

We also played octopus ring toss. This cute game is from Oriental Trading. I wanted to add some height to the game, so I attached it to a short balloon column.

These would also make fun shark week party games. Something to keep in mind for later!

Anyway, this shark birthday party was a swimmingly good time!.

I was so happy with how the whole party turned out. The boys loved all of the fun shark party supplies from Oriental Trading Company. And even though I made a lot of projects with my Cricut Maker, they were all really simple. I was able to cut out and assemble everything the night before. Keeping the food simple and kid friendly also worked really well - the kids actually ate (and not just because they wanted to have cake afterwards LOL)

Here are some more pics of all of the fun.

Want to recreate this shark party? Here's what you need:

Shark Party Supply Shopping List

Links to Shark Party Cricut Project files

That's it for this shark birthday party! If you recreate this party for a birthday or for shark week, I'd love to see it! Tag me on Instagram or join and share pictures in my new Facegroup group for easy entertaining tips.

Until next time!

Jordan

Hi, I’m Jordan – a work at home mom with 3 super fun little boys. I love entertaining guests and want to help you make entertaining easy!

jordanseasyentertaining.com

by Jordan | 0 comment

Shark Party Decorations

Shark Birthday Party Food

Shark Party Supply Shopping List

Links to Shark Party Cricut Project files

Leave a Reply Cancel reply