9/11/11

Hawaiian Birthday Bash, The Rain and Hula







Message in a bottle

Our pretzel hut.

Seven years past and now she's eight, not a toddler anymore but that doesn't mean that food can't still be fun!!
Claire was dead set on having a Hawaiian themed birthday this year, quite appropriate because we has just been to Maui for the first time 2 weeks prior to her party. We let her plan the favors and get a bunch of them in Hawaii, she wanted authentic Hawaiian goodies. We planned for goodies that were reusable and somewhat eco friendly.
The original party was planned for our back yard with a surprise of authentic Hula dancers and a lesson for the girls but the weather worried me. The forecast was cold and rainy and I could just imagine 18 wet and cold crabby girls. At the last minute I secured a gymnastic location, not my first choice but it seemed better than cold wet 8 year olds!



Making faces on the cheese people.
Pineapple with dried fruit
Table with leaves and shells

Pouches from Hawaii with a necklace in each one.
Decorated cups
The logistical issue was with the hula dancers and since I'd paid the deposit I was dead set on having them show.  We had to squeeze the gymnastics and dancers, snacks and cake into an hour and a half! Well I am happy to report it worked and better yet it was fast and easy!
I has some idea of what I wanted the food to be like but since had just had knee surgery the week before and was on crutches I had to give up some control. (yes that is tough for me) 
The lucky part is that I had a cookie decorating class lined up two days before the party and to my surprise it ended up being a beach theme. I used the cookies I made on the cake I just got lucky they went so well.  So I will show you what we came up with, some prior some day of the party. 
My long drawn out point here is that if you have some basic stuff on hand you can come up with a fun and creative party! 
Dried banana leaves as name tags


Here is some of what I had:
Cheese
deli turkey
dried fruit
shells
some Hawaiian decorations I got at the dollar store.
cloth napkins....
I got a pineapple not really knowing what I would use it for but it was a perfect way to skewer dried fruit and attach it to the pineapple with flowery picks to serve!
I rolled the cheese and turkey and drew faces with an edible ink marker.
The shells were decoration.
My mom helped me glue fabric flowers and Claire added stickers to the drink cups.
We used large banana leaves as tags on our goodie bags.
The cake we made with sugar cookies attached.
The cake was planned, Claire made to hut and cut out fondant flowers.
I ordered a sushi platter.
We had gotten sugar cane in Hawaii and added it to the drink cups.

The kids loved it and it ended up being a great day....it never rained!!

Girls in their Hula skirts learning a dance.




A happy birthday girl at home after the party.

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