Luau Party 1yr - Tiki Torches & Grass Skirts

For my daughter's first birthday we had a luau. I began by creating custom invitations with the birthday girl pictured on the front.  I took her to a place at the mall that has a lot of props for kids and had her photographed wearing a grass skirt and a lei.  She also had a flower behind her ear to match the lei.  They had her sitting in a huge pink flower prop that they had there and she had no top on (just the flowers) which showed off all her cute baby fat rolls! 

I cut out 2 colors of pink paper to look like tropical flowers with my decorative scissors. I placed the picture in the middle of the flower.  I put this on the front of a card that said "ALOHA BABY!" at the top. I did this on the computer in bright colors to match the picture.  Inside were the details of the party.  The kids were instructed to bring their swimsuits.  Outside we had set up 2 pools.  A bigger one for the older kids and a small one for those 2 and under.  We also put up a sprinkler.  As each child arrived they were given a beach basket which contained a pool toy, a water gun, bubbles, a lei, and rubber duckies for the little ones. 

I also had grass skirts available for the children and adults to wear.  My sister in law had recently had a huge luau at her house so I had plenty of decorations!  I had a green grass and flower skirt hung all along the front porch with a huge ALOHA sign across the door.  I had the same skirt around the kitchen table with coordinating crepe paper from the ceiling and bright tropical plates and napkins to match. Also hung from the ceiling were huge tropical fish. All of these came from the Oriental Trading Co. The colors were bright green and blue, so for the center piece for the table I filled a large punch bowl that is on a stand with blue and green rocks and water and put our pet beta fish in it, I then floated tropical flowers on the top.  It looked great! 

Even the ice chest had a grass skirt on it.  Outside I had set up tiki torches everywhere and grass skirting around the deck.  I also made an area for pictures.  I put two tiki torches about 4 feet apart and hung a garland of flowers going between the two and down each side. As each child arrived I had them put on their leis and skirts and had their picture made with the birthday girl.  I had found some really nice ceramic frames that had sea creatures all around the edges at the dollar store.  They look really expensive!  I will give these with the pictures in them, along with a thank you note to each child. 

For food we had a beautiful watermelon basket filled with fruit and surrounded by tropical flowers. This was served with ALOHA dip (which is a fruit dip with coconut macaroons in it! ) We also had BBQ wings, Hawaiian style pizza, a  cheese mold, chips/dip and for the kids peanut-butter and "jellyfish" sandwiches (cut out pbj sandwiches with a fish cookie cutter)  For drinks we had non-alcoholic fruit smoothies in assorted flavors with little umbrellas.  Barcardi Mixers in the freezer section are good for this. 

I wanted the cake to be special for my little one's first birthday. I had our local grocery store make a 3-D bear cake.  They usually make this cake to look like a bride and groom-- but for our luau I had them put a yellow icing grass skirt on it. I added a silk tropical flower to it's ear and it also had icing flowers surrounding it at the bottom.  It was too cute!  They also made a separate cake for my daughter to dig into.  This was just a small round cake which I put silk flowers around.  She had a great time digging into her own cake!  I also made a huge collage of pictures of the birthday girl's first year. 

In the middle was a 10 x 13 close up of her with the flower and lei on (I had this done at the same time as the other picture at the mall)  On the top of the poster it said "ALOHA BABY, I'M ONE!"  It was really cute and everyone enjoyed looking at the pictures.  After gift opening we had a hula hoop contest with some of the older kids and then the grown-ups had a limbo contest.  This party was so much fun.  The kids had fun in the water and the grown-ups had fun too!  I know she won't remember it, but at least I'll have the pictures to prove how great our little one's very first birthday was!