This Sunday we had the birthday party celebrations for Samaira’s 4th birthday and was it FUN!!! I don’t think I have ever felt so exhausted and deliriously happy at the same time. When I decided to host a biggish birthday party with around 40 guests and no outside help, I was not sure whether I will be able to make it a success or not, but I sure wanted to challenge myself.

As you know our birthday party theme was POOL PARTY and we did not have it in a resort or a club with a pool but in our very own backyard.  I went through a million pool party ideas to plan out the perfect pool themed birthday party. A non-inflatable wading pool was the center of attraction and the kids had the most fun because of it.

If you have followed our birthday party planning series then you will know that this was a birthday party planned on a budget  and we tried to go Do-It-Yourself where ever we could. After almost a month of planning, the D-day arrived and then the weather gods decided to play a googly on us. Instead of a sunny evening we got a cloudy day with intermittent drizzling and winds which threatened to ruin our fun. But now at hindsight, it can be safe to say that we and the guests especially the kids had an awesome time at the party. Here is a blow-by-blow account of our daughters’ 4th Birthday with a pool party theme and hopefully you can get a few birthday party ideas for your child’s next birthday too.

Birthday with a Pool Party Theme

Invitations 

You have already seen our DIY Pool party invitations and they were a huge hit with our guests. Almost every one of the invitees was curious about how we made them. These invitations will work very well with a beach theme too.

Pool party decor

Probably the only thing that was outsourced in our birthday party decorations was the balloon decoration. We had a colorful mix of balloons at the front gate as well as the party venue. Apart from the balloons we had pool party cutouts that I bought from Party in a box, in fact I bought some more stuff like khoi bag goodies, shot glasses for our layered jelly, aqua theme cocktail skewers etc. from their shop in gurgaon.

We had some DIY decorations too, I made crepe paper pom poms which gave the decor a great vibe. Since our cake table was being put up in front of a window, my husband and I made crepe paper curtains too to give the table a nice backdrop. See how my husband jazzed up the DJ table (DJ being him!!) and even covered the speakers with some crepe cutouts.

Paper lanterns, birthday banners, colorful buntings and lastly the pool completed our pool party decor. Doesn’t it look so festive, vibrant and colorful. Almost like being at a beach!!

Dress

The birthday girl was dressed in a beautiful white dress which was accessorised by white hairband, silver shoes and there was a white fairy wand too. But probably for the first time ever, my daughter wasn’t excited to be dressed up to the nines because all she wanted to do was to change into a swimsuit and jump into the pool. Believe me, this was the case with all the kids!!

Birthday Cake

The cake was done by Bee the baker who featured in our Top 15 custom cake home bakers in Delhi and Gurgaon. The cake was a vanilla sponge with a strawberry cream filling with fresh strawberries. As per our discussion she gave it a pool party/aqua look and the cake was loved by everyone.

Birthday Party Menu

We had a kids snack table outside and it contained mostly finger food so that kids could play in the pool and eat simultaneously. Almost everything was made at home and we had fruit kebabs, layered jelly in shot glasses, chocolate cupcakes, sour candy, marshmallows, juices, nachos with salsa dip, potato smileys etc. 

At the main food table we spiral pasta in red sauce, Idli with Sambar, chickpeas with pita bread and mini pizzas. Again everything was made at home. Most of the prep work was done one night before like cupcakes were made, pasta sauce, mini pizzas baked and frozen etc. This reduced the burden on us for the next day.

Pool Fun

The best part about the party was the pool!! The kids LOVED it!! Despite the weather being not so sunny and water being a little bit on the cold side, kids enjoyed the pool tremendously. Yes, the cleanup afterwords was more than I expected but just the expression of pure happiness on my daughter’s face inside the pool was totally worth it!

It was difficult to get the kids out of the pool and they played, splashed, dunked and what not for a long time. Although we had planned to do some activities in the pool itself but with the weather being unpredictable we had to get the kids changed and get some food inside them before they could go to play games.

Birthday Party Games

We had an underwater theme khoi bag or pinata filled with goodies. It had mini erasers, flip flop keychains, plastic mini water guns, stickers, candy and lot of confetti! The kids had so much fun filling their goody bags. After this the kids played musical statue and musical chairs. I had kept some small prizes for the winners and the spirit of the kids to win them was seen to be believed.

If you want to know what more party activities you can do at your child’s birthday then our post on 40 birthday party activities and games will be of lot of help.

Return Gifts

 We featured in our post on50 birthday party return gifts under Rs 500/- in India and our return gifts were done by them. The mini bumble box was completely customized for our pool party theme and had a personalized thank you message from the birthday girl inside the lid too.

The boxes were adored by the kids and I have been getting calls from all the moms about how unique this gift was and how much their kids were taken in by the activity in the box. I will be reviewing this mini bumble box soon on the blog, so keep watching this space.

So this was our daughter’s 4th birthday with a pool party theme and even though the whole family was worn out at the end of the day, there was a special feeling of happiness that we got from having pulled off an organized, themed and fun birthday party without any party planners.

Nothing brings the family closer than working together and I will say this loud and clear that if you can, plan your kids’ birthday parties on your own and it will be a party you will remember for a long time to come.  Would love your comments and thoughts on our birthday party so don’t forget to pencil in!!