If you"re going to have a birthday party and you need somebody to plan it, look no further than Flip or Flop"s Tarek El Moussa.
You might have to be one of his kids. Try crouching down — that"ll work, right?
His daughter with Christina El Moussa, Taylor, turned 7, and he threw the most extra mermaid birthday party for her. And he cannot stop gushing about how much he loves making his kids happy.
We"ve seen Tarek El Moussa celebrate his son"s birthday before, just short while ago when Brayden turned two years old.
At the time, they decided that it would be best for everyone if Christina didn"t attend that party.
Tarek, in turn, didn"t attend Christina"s celebrations.
That"s actually a sign that the El Moussas are handling their divorce well, despite the rough way that it began.
And even at the time of Brayden"s birthday, it sounded like Christina"s absence was more for the sake of other guests than because the two costars couldn"t stand to be around each other.
(We got the impression that, perhaps, some of the other adult guests had strong opinions and nobody wanted there to be a scene at a two-year-old"s birthday)
This time, it"s Taylor El Moussa"s birthday.
She turned seven years old.
People don"t always remember their second birthdays (I distinctly remember just a few things, like the cake), but pretty much everyone remembers their seventh.
And that"s what Tarek"s counting on, which is why he"s making it so very memorable for Taylor.
Her birthday party has an intense mermaid motif.
That appears to have been complete with trained entertainers, dressed as mermaids for the young attendees.
Precious!
Tarek El Moussa told E! all about what went into the party.
"I knew she wanted a mermaid theme. There"s a little mermaid place we went to once and she wanted to go so I said why not bring the mermaids home."
Not everyone can afford to "bring the mermaids home," outside of old stories of fishermen with tragic endings.
But not everyone is a successful reality star. Tarek El Moussa own a yacht, after all. He can spring to make his daughter"s birthday special.
And it sounds like it worked.
"She"s super excited and when she got here, she was super impressed."
Surprise parties can be risky, but Tarek can"t get enough.
"I like surprises. I like to surprise people."
Tarek says that he and Christina are handling every aspect of the divorce with their children in mind.
"It"s really important for [the kids] to know that we still care about each other."
That includes considerations when it comes to birthdays.
"We celebrated Taylor"s birthday together at school [Friday] so in general, we"re just trying to keep them happy and positive and do fun things and they"re doing really well."
Taylor, to no one"s surprise, was loving her mermaid bash.
"It"s been great. She even told me it"s her best birthday ever, which was really nice."
Tarek has a specific reason for his "go big" approach to childrens birthday parties, and there"s more to it than trying to show up his ex.
(We"re glad that he and Christina aren"t doing that — it might seem that the kids benefit from competitive niceness, but that kind of one-upmanship is toxic and ends up hurting everyone involved)
"I had good parents growing up and I remember all the little things they did so I know that every single thing I do now will affect her in the future and she will remember all these small things."
That"s right — just like how trauma lasts a lifetime, good experiences in childhood can have a profound impact upon people and make them into better human beings.
Tarek also took Taylor on a "date night" to a nice restaurant.
We know that you probably recoiled a little at that, and we get it, but bear with us. He"s just treating his daughter to a fancy dinner. This isn"t like one of those "father-daughter promise dances" or anything creepy like that. it"s sweet.
"Even the date night alone was amazing and I know for the rest of her life, she"ll remember that."
Cute!
