Lilo & Stitch 2yr - Surfboard Photo Backdrop

For my daughter's second birthday party we held a Lilo and Stitch luau.  I started by making wooden cut outs of Lilo and Stitch.  I painted them and stood them in the living room next to the 5.5 foot paper meche wave and surfboard I made as a backdrop for photos.  The surfboard was made out of wood so the kids could stand on it and the giant wave stood behind them with Lilo and Stitch on either side.

Then, I moved all of the furniture out of the living room and covered part of the floor with blue tarps to look like the ocean. The wooden floor sticking out symbolized the sand. I blue up all kinds of rafts and put then in the ocean" for seating.  My daughter and I also painted cans and put them on a stick to look like a todem pole. 

We put that in the foyer along with candle sticks tied with raffia. In the entryway from the foyer to the house I put fish netting with a stuffed octopus and fish stuck in it. When each child came in the boys were given a bright bandana which came in many colors and the girls were given wraps (skirts) made out of flowery material.  I just triangular strips and tied them around the girls' waists.  Everyone was given a lais to wear.

The food table was covered in tiny palm trees and pineapples.  I made fruit bowls and the chips were in sand buckets. I also had straws with tiny umbrellas on them. For the cake I made a large round cake and covered it in blue fondant icing.  Around the sides I put red swedish gummy fish.  On top the blue layer was a smaller round cake.  I put frosting on it then covered the frosting with grahm cracker crumbs to look like sand.  I made palm trees out of twix green fruit rollups and chocolate M&Ms (coconuts). I also bought some tiny Lilo and Stitch figurines to put on top in the "sand."

For the invitations I found a tan paper and printed the party info on it in a script font. Then I used a lit candle and burnt the edges of each invitation (about 35) and crumpled each one to give it a rustic look.  Each invitation was placed in a glass bottle with some sand and a few seashells I picked up in a craft store.  I topped each bottle off with a piece of the flowery material used in the skirts for the girls.  Then I tied it with a piece of raffia.  We hand-delivered most of the invitations but I mailed a few in padded envelopes.

We also had a turtle-shaped pinata that the kids really enjoyed.  Both the children and parents were impressed with the party and amazed with all of the details of the party.  My daughter had a blast and the kids loved sitting on rafts all day."