Part 1: From Loving "The Little Mermaid"

Nyssa: Trip to Arizona, just before her 4th birthday.

Sebastian: "Somebody's got to nail that girl's fins to the floor."

The Little Mermaid animated film first came out when Nyssa was three. Suddenly, everything was "The Little Mermaid"; sheets, blankets, clothes, lunch boxes, sleeping bags, toys, plastic jewelry, you name it they had it. Nyssa absolutely adored Ariel. Of course she had already loved Big Bird, Care Bears and Mickey Mouse and she would absolutely love Belle, Cinderella, all things Lion King and Scritch in the future. But for the three year old child that was in the present, she loved Ariel and company. So for the fourth birthday, we had a "Little Mermaid" theme. (Part I continued)

We had not lived in Mississippi very long; there was no living room furniture, just an empty room, so this was our Under the Sea wonderland. I hung iridescent short streamers down from the ceiling for seaweed and different sized white iridescent balloons for bubbles. My second expedition into the world of paper mache was this large rock and surrounding smaller stones to be the backdrop for all the characters. I used pictures to draw the characters and painted them as close as possible to the real thing. Nyssa loved it. Her little friends from daycare came and Miss M, one of her daycare workers, as well. We kept it small.


I baked and decorated the Mermaid cake (picture is in storage) and we had cake and ice cream. Four year olds are really not much into organized games so they just played in the back yard on the swingset.

This was her first party in Mississippi and being the packrat that I am at times, I carefully saved all the streamers (they weren't paper) and the figures. (Hey, they took a long time to make!) They were lovingly and carefully packed away for twelve years.....

(end of part one)