We recently celebrated Lily’s 5th Birthday with a luau at our house. Let’s take a peek at how we put it all together.
As you saw in last week’s post, I created an umbrella wreath for the front door out of paper parasols.
I bought two hibiscus plants that I put in some pots that I had painted last year.
They added the perfect tropical touch.
In the foyer, I put tons of leis in a bucket and displayed the invitation that I made on PicMonkey.
For the favors, I got sunglasses from The Children’s Place, some Swedish Fish (Lily loves “sweetest fish”!) a hibiscus tattoo, and either a Hello Kitty necklace for the girls or a foam plane of the boys (both from the One Spot at Target).
I just put all the goodies into white paper bags and added a little tag–that said “Thanks for coming to Lily’s Luau”– thanks to Picmonkey again. (I “borrowed” some of Sophia’s fun tape to attach them to the bags.)
Some grass skirts for the girls were laid out the back of the couch so kids could grab them as they came in.
I usually don’t like a matching set of paper plates but when I saw these at Ikea, I had to have them. I got the straws eons ago at Pottery Barn outlet and they’ve been sitting in a party bin in the attic just waiting for a luau!
I kept the food pretty simple: pizza for dinner, tortilla chips and homemade guacamole, and lots of fruit. I had to include some pineapple, of course! (more cute napkins from Ikea)
As for the cupcakes, I made them at home and used blue frosting to represent water, crunched up graham crackers for sand, gummy flip flops and a paper parasol.
I pulled out all my cake stands and decorated some of them to look like they had grass skirts on. I just cut up a piece of green craft paper and taped it all the way around. Then I cut apart one of the leis and glued flowers around the paper with fabric glue.
I also wrapped one of the cake stands with a lei.
The little tissue paper decorations are from Oriental Trading –where I got just about everything I needed–and they came in really handy to give some height to the cupcake displays. (I just stuck them on top of a plastic cup turned upside down.)
As for activities, we kinda just winged it. I was nervous because we don’t have a swingset anymore (remember how I told you that Hurricane Sandy took it out?) But we just put out all of our frisbees, wiffle balls and bats, and bubbles and let the kids have fun in the yard. They loved it and there wasn’t a dull moment.
It was a perfect day with lots of good friends, good food and drinks, and good times!
Happy 5th Birthday Lily!
XO
Sue at Home
Sue At Home 