Summer Scrapbook: Aloha

Seth is at the movies, and small people are in bed. I guess I might as well just keep blogging.

I mentioned that we had Alyssa's birthday party this week. As you know, her birthday is on the 2nd. Since we had family in town, her party with friends got swept under the rug. The rule is that the kids get little family/one friend parties on odd birthdays and bigger themed parties on even birthdays. Alyssa decided on a Luau months ago, but with all the houseguests and travelling, I thought maybe we had partied enough and could just forgo the Luau. Last week Alyssa asked if I had ordered her Luau stuff yet. Uh...uh....

A promise is a promise, so I jumped on Oriental Trading and ordered away. My order confirmation said my stuff would arrive on Wednesday, the 21st, so I made invitations for the 22nd...keeping my fingers crossed that my order would not get delayed. We hand delivered most of the invitations Saturday, but had to mail a few to school friends. I told Alyssa it might be a small party because some of the kids wouldn't get their invites until Tuesday. Imagine my surprise when all 10 girls RSVP'd, with only two days notice. I guess they are used to my spontaneity by now.

We shopped and planned all day Wednesday and were ready to roll by Thursday night.


Thursday July 22nd (only 20 days late)
Here is everything all set up and ready to go.

I was going to have the girls come in and make hibiscus hairclips, but I found them already made at Oriental Trading. I used them as napkin rings.

The goody bags

I was thinking of making a cake similar to one my sister did years ago of a beach scene. (I will show it to you one day.) I decided to do cupcakes instead, with a similar, yet simpler approach. I copied these from Family Fun magazine.

I thought those cupcakes were darling, but after making a few I decided I wanted more variety. So Thursday morning we were back to the store for a box of Teddy Grahams, and Fruit by the Foot. We made sunbathers.

And when that got boring, we made water teddies. My favorite was the one on the surfboard, but Alyssa loved the one that fell off his board. She pointed out that he was naked, so I did make sure to paint a suit on him before the guests arrived.

I bought a cupcake tower, because I have always wanted one. I was disappointed when the cupcakes were squished together on it and looked like a big mess. It will be going back to Party City. I ended up just parading the cupcakes down the center of the table. You may have noticed them in that first picture.

When guests arrived, we ate dinner.

Excuse the Sprite in this shot. I made Luau slush and froze it overnight. It said to thaw for two hours. I gave it three just to be sure, but it was still rock solid at show time. We filled the coconuts with Sprite, and used the slush with dessert. Although...by then it was completely thawed and not slushy at all.You win some, you lose some. No biggie.

Alex was supposed to go with Seth and Chloe but he really wanted to stay. He plopped down on the ground next to the girls and ate. He even put on his Hawaiian trunks. Poor kid was out of his element. The whole party was so girly and he wanted attention so he ended up being terribly obnoxious. I guess that is what happens when you let your son eat on the floor like a puppy. Sorry buddy!

I have cropped the other kids out the best I could so the pictures might be boring, but here is an idea of how the party played out. About 10 minutes before the guests arrived, I worried that they might fight over which color grass skirts they got. I had just made a fishing pole and fish on Sunday, for my "fishers of men" sharing time at church. I grabbed them and the number on the fish they got determined the order in which they would choose their skirts. Fishing is kind of Luau-ish?

Then we did the limbo. I have no proof of this since I was holding one end of the limbo stick. My friend, Jen, stayed to help and she was on the other end.

Next we moved on to pineapple bowling. I thought this little pineapple/coconut bowling set was cute and bought it last minute at Party City. It turned out to be a bit obnoxious since Jen and I had to keep resetting up the pins.

After we gave everyone two coconuts at bowling, we quickly moved them on to Hula lessons. I found a step by step hula DVD on clearance for $2.50 at Party City so I couldn't resist. They learned 3 basic hula steps and then did three different dance performances. I thought they were terribly cute. I will be brave and post a picture of all of them, from the back.

My other craft idea was to make cute flip flops, but Oriental Trading had a cute Luau bracelet craft that I couldn't pass up. OT made my life so easy this time around (and I got $10 off and free shipping...I love you OT). If you ever have to do a party last minute, go with a Luau. There is so much out there. You don't even have to be creative. I wasn't sure if we'd have time for bracelets, so I actually had them propped up by the goody bags, ready to throw in if we didn't get to them. But, we did, and they were a hit.

After everyone had their bracelets on, we moved on to presents. I always have the gift giver sit with the birthday kid while they open it. That way I am sure to get at least one good picture of each guest. This little guests mom is my friend, and fellow blogger so I don't think she'll mind me posting her kiddo.

After gifts, we sang Happy Birthday, and ate cupcakes. They got to choose their cupcake in the opposite order that they chose skirts.

Everyone grabbed their goody bag and was out the door at 8:00 on the nose. I made these two goofballs stay a minute and pose with Alyssa so we could see them all dressed up. I know Jen doesn't mind, or at least she hasn't said anything the last 700 times I have posted pics of her kids.

I had lots of fun and Alyssa said it was her favorite party yet. My favorite was Candyland. (I will show it to you someday.) Clean up was even pretty easy since all the flowers, skirts, cups, etc., went home with the girls. And now I am off to think of a super fabulous theme for Alex's 6th birthday party.

Aloha!