Hawaiian Hula Birthday Party
Ever since our trip to Hawaii with Cindy’s family a few years back, Janie has been enamored with Hawaii. Not that we can blame her - Hawaii is amazing and we had a spectacular vacation. When in Hawaii, we caught some incredible hula performances that captivated Janie. Afterwards they offered a kids lesson and she was the only kid in our group willing to go. She spent about 20 minutes with the instructors, but every moment must have registered deep within her because she came home knowing a traditional hula dance and then loved teaching it to others.
After the trip, Janie obsessed about Nanea, the Hawaiian American Girl doll and the historical context she was given, adored the Moana movie, especially the soundtrack, and she begged for a shave ice machine. She proudly wore her Hawaii shirt and necklace to school any chance she had. When it became time to plan Janie’s birthday, throwing a luau was kind of a no-brainer!
To decorate the party we used Hawaiian Luau Table Skirting (1 bought four of these to cover the mantel and the table we put the TV on, in addition to the two guest tables). These Tissue Paper Floral Garlands really added to the festive feel. They look like they have greenery and flowers together and helped to make the room feel festive when hung from our normal living room furniture.
Each place setting included disposable paper plate and festive Hawaiian floral napkin. I gave each girl one of these plastic coconut cups, adorned with a straw and paper flower (created with my Silhouette electronic cutter). The Coconut Cups looked adorable, but they were not the most practical choice. We ended up giving them glasses for the punch instead since the tops popped off easily making them easy to spill. If I were to throw this party again I would probably go with Natural Coconut Cups since they were not all that much more and would add a great texture to the party set up.
I found some fun designs in the Silhouette design store (flowers, pineapples, palm trees, snow cones, tropical leaves, and hula dancers) and used my Silhouette Cameo electronic cutter to create the paper craft elements on this party. I love making paper flowers. I added a center piece to different flower cuts and found colorful asterisk brads to add to a simple layered flower to create a hibiscus. I also fiddled with the hula design to make my hula girl have blonde hair so it resembled Janie. If you do not have a cutter you could use premade designs like this Tiki Party Cutout Kit or the Hibiscus Party Cutout Kit. The Party Buddy offers this Summer Party Centerpiece decoration Print Out Kit. This Hawaiian Party Luau Kit from Punky Prep is another adorable choice for additional party elements.
I created the table centerpieces with skewer sticks and a floral foam square placed in a painted white box. I glued the cut outs to both sides of a skewer stick and poked the end into the foam. You could also put the decorated sticks in weighted jars or vases.
We found some fun Hawaiian music to play during the meal and social time of the party. I find that with kids, especially at this age when they are relatively new to drop off parties, having medium-volume, fun music playing, even a song or two they might recognize, like the Moana soundtrack, makes the party feel more inviting.
We served the guests pizza (which included Janie’s favorite Hawaiian), along with a tropical fruit salad and a simple veggie platter. With an older group, we may have served traditional luau food, but this menu worked great for this group of guests.
What Luau party would be complete without Hawaiian shaved ice!?! Janie really fixated on the idea of serving shave ice at her party. We purchased an inexpensive electric shave ice machine. Janie initially wanted to show her friends how she could make the shaved ice, but with eight girls to serve we worried it wouldn't go smoothly. Instead, we shaved the ice in the kitchen and brought the plastic bowls with shaved ice to the girls one at a time (the paper cones are adorable, but more of an outside option). Janie then helped them at her little stand with the syrup toppings. It still gave her the shave ice stand feel, spaced out the guests, so they weren’t adding syrups at once, and maintained some of the excitement for the girls, (without too much mess!). Note: the Jelly Belly syrups appear to be discontinued by the manufacturer, but any shave ice syrup or even fruit juice, if you want to take a healthy route, will work.
The adorable shave ice stand was something that Cindy made for her kids to sell lemonade. It was made by putting together 4 painted wooden crates, adding a counter top and dowels to hang the banner from. Alternating the direction of the crates gave it structure and made for some great shelves to display the syrups.
The cupcakes were just plain yellow frosted cupcakes ordered from our local grocery store bakery. By adding the pineapple tops they instantly became perfect for a luau party!
Going into the party Janie was really wanting to teach all of her friends how to hula dance. We were a little apprehensive about whether she could hold all of her guest attention or make it exciting. We were unsuccessful in finding party hula lessons and there really was no way I would be able to lead a hula dance. We found a DVD called Real Hula Lessons for Children, and after Janie screened it multiple times, she deemed it worth showing at her party. We did not play the entire video, but probably about 2/3 of the dance lessons, and all of these 1st grade sweethearts had a wonderful time following along.
They looked adorable in the hula ensembles, which included: a grass skirt, a flower neck lei, headband, and bracelets. Each guest brought all of their hula items home in a fun and colorful Hawaiian Hibiscus Print tote bag.
Watching the girls get into the hula dancing in their hula outfits ended up being the highlight of the party. Janie had an incredibly fun Hawaiian Luau with her friends. Even two years later, while counting down the weeks until our next Hawaiian vacation, she has fond memories of this party.
