For my daughter’s 7th birthday, we had a Hawaiian themed party.  It was one of my favourite birthday party themes and we had so much fun.  I followed the same structure that I use for most parties, and even duplicated some of the ideas.

• invitations
• decorations
• activities/games
• snacks and beverages
• cake(s) ~ plan, design and bake a cake/cupcakes (or save the hassle and order one)
• loot bags

This is Eden all dressed up for her party. All of the girls received similar “costumes” as part of their loot bag. We used this backdrop for many of the birthday photos.

For a complete breakdown of party planning steps and organization, see my Birthday Party Planning post.

Invitations:

At this point, I had not done much card making, so the invitations were made on the computer with cute fonts and clip art.  It was nothing special, but contained all of the information and matched the theme.  I tried to put a sample in the post, but I have changed from Word to Mac, so the format was all off and didn’t look nearly as good as the original.  I normally make an extra invitation to put in the kid’s scrapbooks as well.

Decorations:

I made my traditional happy birthday banner for Eden.  In addition, I made a huge ocean/beach backdrop for photos. I don’t usually buy those decoration sets, but did purchase a few for this particular party.  You can see the Hula Girl and a few other decorations that are not homemade.  Some of the murals/decorations were lent to me for the party, as the grade 2 classes in my school do a big Hawaiian theme.  The colours were very beachy and bright, and we had tiki lights around the room.  We had grass skirts around the buffet in the dining room and a centerpiece that consisted of floating flower candles and scattered sea shells.  We had coconut incense (very mild), flip-flop plates and butterfly and fish serving dishes.  There were beach towels randomly placed around the room, a palm tree with “balloons” for coconuts, and we used the wicker chairs from our outdoor furniture set to add to theme.  I also used decorations from past birthdays such as the homemade butterflies from Eden’s second birthday.  We also dressed up in theme related attire.  Tropical music played in the background and was used for the games.

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Games and Activities:

• Pin the Coconut on the Tree – We separated Fudgee-O sandwich cookies.  The girls licked the icing and stuck it to the tree.  The cookies were the coconuts!
• Pineapple Bowling – I made paper maché pineapples from 2 L pop bottles and then we used a real coconut for a bowling ball.  Our long hardwood floor hallway made a great bowling alley.  (These were used later in the year for Shay’s Pirate Party)
• Musical Beach Towels
• Hula Dancing and the Limbo (under a pool noodle)
• Pass the Present – Wrap a little gift/surprise item in a box (in paper that goes with the theme, if possible).  You then proceed to add layers of wrapping paper on the outside equal to the number of kids, so that each child will get a turn to unwrap the present. You pass the present around the circle to music and when the music stops, the person holding the present gets to unwrap a layer.  The person that unwraps the final layer gets to keep the prize inside.
• Craft:  The girls made bracelets with seashell beads.

Seashell Bracelet

Pin the Coconut on the Tree

Pineapple Bowling

Pineapple Bowling

Snacks and Beverages:

• We served fresh fruit, fish crackers and a little plate of fish-shaped jube jubes.
• Virgin Strawberry Daiquiris were served for the beverage.  The drinks were served with a slice of fresh fruit on the edge, a straw and of course, an umbrella!

Cake and Ice Cream:

I made two cakes.  One for Eden’s Hawaiian Party with her friends and one for the family party.  The Hula Girl cake was served at the party she had with her friends and the flip-flop cake was served later in the evening to family.  The Hula Girl cake was based on the same idea as a Barbie Doll cake.  I just tweaked the idea for the Hawaiian theme.  The flip-flops were easy and didn’t require much prep.  I simply made two sheet cakes and cut them each into a flip-flop shape.  I frosted them and then decorated them with a Fruit Roll-Up. I don’t seem to have a picture of the cake and ice cream being served, but I cut a 2 L box of ice cream into slices and then used a pineapple cookie cutter to make ice cream cut-outs.  I sprinkled yellow coloured sugar on the pineapple and green on for the leaves.  They were then re-frozen on a tray until serving time. Everyone got a piece of pineapple ice cream (vanilla flavoured) with their cake.

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Loot Bags:

Each of the girls received a lei, grass skirt, sunglasses and a flower for their hair as soon as they arrived.  This would all be taken home at the end of the party as part of their loot. They also received flip-flop barrettes, homemade flip-flop cookies and a beach themed discovery bottle.  The discovery bottles were made from recylced water bottles.  We filled them with water, blue food colouring (a bit of oil – I think), some sand, seashells and a few tiny  sea animals (plastic or erasers). To be honest, it was a few years ago and I don’t exactly remember or have a photo of the finished bottles.  Once they have been filled,you simply glue gun the lid closed.  All of their loot was taken home in a canvas bag that had big tropical flowers on it. I have so many great pictures of all of the girls against the backdrop all dressed-up with their umbrella drinks in hand.  So cute, but I didn’t feel I could share photos with anyone else’s children, so you just have to use your imagination.  I absolutely love giving costumes as part of the loot.  The kids not only have fun at the party, but can continue to play dress-up at home after.

Here you can see the flip flop cookies that were handed-out to the guests at the end of the party.

There was a beach umbrella right at the entrance that the girls walked under to enter the party. You can see the loot bags on the left.

This party was so much fun.  We have so many great photos of the party.  I always try to get a few group shots and a picture of the birthday boy/girl with each of their friends, in addition to all of the random snap shots that are taken. A party like this is so much work, but my daughter still remembers it and talks about it. It seems like the days of theme parties are behind us, as the kids have gotten older and just want to hang-out with their friends.  I am so glad I put the extra effort in when they were little!

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