Luau for Laura

 

Aloha!  There is a blessed silence from my daughter’s room right now.  She is done, luaued, hulaed and caked out.  Today was her 7th birthday party – a little early to catch the elementary crowd before they scattered in the summer winds.  Judging by the smiles and lack of total mishaps, the tropical celebration worked.  Here’s the lowdown.

We picked the luau theme because a) Mommy wanted it and b) it is easy to find all the loot (unlike Laura’s latest obsession with DIY channel and shows like Bathtastic which Party Packagers does not have coordinating napkins and decorations for…. I hadn’t tried Home Depot mind you, but I digress).  And c) it’s tons of fun with so many possibilities for a mostly girls party and d) did I mention that I wanted it?

I worked my butt off getting ready for this thing!  (Don’t worry – my butt grew back thanks to cake.)  I’m solo this weekend so it is all up to me.  As the fates would have it, the weather did not decide to be Hawaiian tropical sunshine with happy chirping birdies but rain, rain and more rain.  *sigh*  The only option to entertain 15 kids is the dreaded basement.  It is an unfinished lair of clutter and man-stuff.  But a few garbage bags and some  creative work later, it is now a tropical vacationland.  Yay me!  I almost want to go down there now just for fun! (piña colada colada in hand, of course.)

 

When the guests arrived I had Laura welcome them with leis and get them a grass skirt and flip flops.  (It is amazing what you find at the dollar store when you leave your consumer conscience at the door!)  Then it was off to craft land.  The easiest and best craft was making flower clips for their hair.  They turned out so well with so little effort.  You just need to destroy a few leis for the flowers, get some brads and some hair clip bases (Michaels) and layer away.  The girls looked SO cute with their outfits. 

My wonderful sister came to help out and brought all her teacher-ness with her.  She led them in “hot coconut” with a real coconut and what “I’m bringing to Hawaii” memory game and other such things to Hawaiian music in the basement while I set up a treasure hunt.  The kids had fun with that while I set up a piñata as the final clue destination.  The piñata was shaped like a big flip-flop. ( I have a thing about beating animate objects with a stick.)  Happy campers with lots of candy and mini-toys to add to their loot bags. 

Cake time!  There seems to have been an earthquake in my attempt at a home made beach scene cake.  (Apparently I may have made some miscalculations on the cake design as I attempted to multitask by icing a cake with the help of an almost 7 year old while answering the phone, doing dishes and decorating the house about an hour before the party.  Not sure how I could have been so distracted!) My nephew seemed quite fine with it pointing out how cool it was to have a real river running through it.  But when it comes down to it, the kids really just want to eat cake and there was plenty of it to be had. 

Presents, free time and loot bags and rounded out the exciting day.  I didn't even get around to doing a limbo dance, doing a hula lesson (now that would have been funny!) or luau freeze dance.  But, alas, the time flew by and I couldn't be two places at once. 

I would say it all worked out very well!  Now that I have all the luau loot, I'm thinking I need to have some kind of adult luau thing, if my energy returns someday.  Or maybe I need to go to Hawaii, you know, to do more research or something.  Aloha ahiahi!