If nautical nonsense be something you wish … well, then choose our SpongeBob SquarePants party jumper and host an under-the-sea party! Say aye-aye to our party planning suggestions below and make a real splash with your bash!

Invitations - Purchase invitations at your local party supply store, or use our free DIY Appian personalized invitation script! These feature the jump you rent (links are available at each jump page) and can be printed or saved for e-mailing.

If you'd rather create your own unique invitations, consider hand-delivering a message in a bottle to each guest! Write your party details on a parchment paper, roll into a scroll and tie with green ribbon or yarn to look like seaweed. Next, collect empty water bottles with lids, wash thoroughly and remove the outer brand wrapping. Insert scrolls into the water bottles and, if you choose, fill with very dry sand, more green ribbon or yarn, and fish-shaped confetti or tiny shells. Decorate the outside of the bottles with more ribbon and stickers or clipart. (See our Links section at the bottom of the page for SpongeBob stickers and clipart resources.)

You can also make a SpongeBob look-alike invitation from an ordinary yellow kitchen sponge, but perhaps you'd like to leave that as a craft activity on party day!

Decorations - Create an inside underwater Bikini Bottom atmosphere by hanging blue, green or silver streamers or curling ribbons from the ceiling, or attach them to free-floating helium-filled blue and green balloons. For a fun extra oceanic touch, hand draw or print out fish and other marine clipart (don't forget a starfish or two!) and attach to the bottoms of the ribbon or steamers, and tape some to your walls. You'll literally have fish swimming throughout the party area!

Also consider draping fishnets purchased from a sporting supply store in a corner or two and affixing plastic fish and sea shells. Additionally some vendors sell under-the-sea murals you can use to cover your walls. If you really want to wow your guests and truly transport them under the sea, consider renting an Appian bubble machine. Imagine how delightful this will all seem to the youngsters at your party!

You can take some of these decoration ideas outside, and if you're lucky enough to have a backyard or other party area which is surrounded by a fence, cover the fence in blue fabric -- look for something shiny or see-through, for maximum effect -- and affix hand-drawn or printed clipart SpongeBob and under-the-sea images (see Links below).

See our Links section below to purchase SpongeBob and "under the sea" tableware, or shop locally. If you do not want to go to great expense, plain blue and green tablecloths and flatware can be found in any party store! Don't forget to add yellow balloons to your décor for that "Spongebob effect!"

Arrival Activities/Icebreakers - Pay homage to SpongeBob by greeting your arriving guests with a red tie for each one of them! If you wish, and children are old enough not to be frustrated, use the ties later in a tie-tying contest. Demonstrate this "lost art" and then see who can get their tie tied first!

Party Activities - Your party guests will spend much of their time bouncing around in our Spongebob jumper, but you may want to have a few other activities planned to add to the fun! Make sure you have your camera on hand to take photos -- you can tuck them into thank you notes you'll mail later.

Fill a baby pool or other large container with dry sand, or use your sandbox, and hide a number of party favors such as beach toys in the sand. Instruct each guest to find one "secret treasure." To make it interesting, blindfold the guests!

Hold a water balloon toss! Fill the balloons with water an hour or two before the party and store in a cool place. Pair kids up and see which pair can toss their balloon the most times without it breaking. Make sure to have towels on hand to dry off the wet "victims" of this game.

Next, divide guests into two teams and have a water race! You will need four buckets of equal size (two filled with water and two empty) and two identical soup ladles. Set the two empty buckets several yards away from the two full buckets. The object of the game is for each team to use the soup ladles and fill the empty buckets with water from the full buckets. Team members go one at a time, running with the ladle to the empty bucket, pouring the water in, then running back to the full bucket, handing off the ladle to the next team member. Once everyone has gone a turn, measure the water in the buckets to see which team filled their bucket with the most water and the least spilling!

Print SpongeBob coloring sheets (see our Links below) from the Internet and provide plenty of crayons for a quiet-time activity. Better yet, allow children to make their own SpongeBob SquarePants to take home! You'll need ordinary yellow kitchen sponges, construction paper and pipe cleaners. See our Links section to access complete directions.

For another neat craft project, have older children make their own underwater scene in a glass or plastic bottle with caps -- baby food jars would be ideal. You'll need: vegetable oil, glitter or confetti, blue or green food coloring, stickers or small Spongebob clipart images (see our Links section below) and rubber cement. Have children fill their small containers halfway with water. Add one or two drops of food coloring, cap the bottle and shake to mix. Next, fill the rest of the container with the vegetable oil. Note how it sits on top of the water! Drop confetti, glitter and Spongebob images into the liquid, cap the bottle and seal the caps with rubber cement. When the rubber cement has dried, instruct guests to gently shake or roll the containers on their sides -- the mixing oil and water creates waves!

Party Favors and Prizes - See our Links below to purchase stickers, temporary tattoos, yo-yos, trading cards, backpack tags and loot bags.

Food and Beverage - For tasty under-the-sea grub, serve SpongeBob's favorite: Krabby Patties (hamburgers) from the grill. Or, consider submarine sandwiches! Provide trays of sub buns, an assortment of meats and cheeses, lettuce and tomato, condiments, and let children build their own.

Fill a glass fishbowl with a snack mix of Goldfish brand snack crackers and pretzels. Decorate with blue ribbon or a red SpongeBob-like tie and use as your table centerpiece.

You'll definitely want to serve an "ocean punch" with your food! This can be as simply accomplished as choosing a blue, berry-flavored unsweetened drink mix like Kool-Aid or adding a touch of blue food coloring to any lemon-lime soft drink. Or try the following recipe:

Ocean Punch

Ingredients:
1 .22 oz packet of Berry Blue Kool-Aid unsweetened drink mix
1 cup sugar
1 2-liter bottle of 7Up or other lemon-lime soda
gummy fish candies
vanilla frozen yogurt

The night before your party, prepare Kool-Aid as directed with one cup of sugar. In a standard ice tray, place one gummy fish candy in each ice cube square and fill the tray with Kool-Aid. Freeze overnight and refrigerate the rest of your Kook-Aid.

Just prior to serving your punch, place 4 standard scoops of vanilla frozen yogurt in your blender. Fill blender halfway with Kool-Aid from the night before and blend. Add 7Up to fill the blender and blend again. Repeat until you have used all the Kool-Aid and 7Up. Your punch will be a lovely sea-blue complete with calm foamy whitecaps! Pour into punch bowl over the ice cubes you prepared the night before and serve. Stir occasionally and add ice as needed to keep punch chilled -- you may wish to make an entirely separate batch of Kool-Aid, just for ice-making. to avoid diluting your punch, but it is not necessary. Serve in plastic pineapple cups which can double as party favors (see our Links below) and enjoy!

If you prefer to make a SpongeBob birthday cake rather than order one, you're in luck --being square sometimes has its advantages. See our Links to pictures and directions from other SpongeBob cake-makers.

SpongeBob SquarePants Party Music -
SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, Original Soundtrack, Sire (2004).
SpongeBob SquarePants: Original Theme Highlights, Original Soundtrack, Jive (2001).
Luau Party Music, Drew's Famous collections, Turn Up The Music (1996).

Spongebob Party Links - See http://www.cartooncritters.com for SpongeBob coloring pages and clipart you may want to use for your invitations, decorations and crafts.

Search the "under the sea" and "SpongeBob" selections at http://shindigz.com for decorations, sea shells, an underwater mural, paper goods, pineapple cups for your Ocean Punch, and very reasonably price party favor packs.

Similar items can also be found at the Bay Area-based http://www.partyamerica.com.

Access directions for making SpongeBob sponge dolls in the parenting section at http://www.nick.com.

http://www.spongebobworld.com/merchandise.htm is a great jumping-off site, with links to the official SpongeBob store where you can buy party supplies and favors and sites for purchasing stickers for your invitations and decorations.

View easy-to-follow SpongeBob cake directions at http://www.coolest-birthday-cakes.com/spongebob-cake.html.