The Birthday Girl.
We think she's pretty wonderful.
The Birthday Cake.
Dave and I had a great time decorating these.
The Hawaiian Decor.
Balloons (can't have a party without balloons - I found a Hawaiian assortment at Wal-Mart),
lanterns and grass skirting (from Dave's sister's wedding in 2006),
leis and other assorted Hawaiian decorations (dollar store),
and a paper garland (the only thing I made).
I was going to decorate a few areas of the house, but decided to concentrate all the decorations in the kitchen, so it ended up looking better than if I hadn't done that. Elysse said, "Mom, this is the prettiest birthday I've ever seen. Thank you, Mom, thank you." That made it all worth it!
The Birthday Party.
Leis and grass skirts for each child, though the boys refused to wear the skirts! Even after I tried to explain that big, strong Hawaiian men wear them, they still looked at me like I was crazy before running in the other direction. So I have a few extras if anyone needs them!!
We made our own leis from a Creatology (foam cutouts) kit from Michael's. $9 for a kit to make 5 leis, unless you hit it on a 50% off day like I did. And if you provide more string, it makes way more than 5. Sweet.
Musical beach towels with a playlist of Hawaiian music from the library.
A picnic lunch while watching the Backyardigans' Surf's Up episode. Menu: Hawaiian pizza (Costco - 2/$11), veggies, fruit skewers, Munchies, chips, and Hawaiian punch.
Sand art in glass bottles. I used these bottles as the invitations, but forgot to get a picture. I just put a bit of sand in the bottom (from the local park!), then put a message inside written on cute Hawaiian paper. I attached some twine to the message before putting the cork in, and tied a name tag to the other end of the twine on the outside of the bottle. Then we asked everyone to bring the bottles back to the party. For this craft, I just bought coloured sand at Michael's ($3.50/bag) and we poured it in the bottles ($1.60 at Michael's). The kids needed a lot of help, but they loved it! We glue gunned the cork in the bottle so no one would end up with a rainbow of sand rubbed into their carpet later.
Hula hooping. Haven't done this in ages, and I was surprised I could actually do it! I also found hula hoops at the dollar store (though they were a little more than the advertised dollar), so I sent each child home with their own.
We were all outside having fun, and Dave came in and found Chanelle sitting her chair. Poor girl.
Blowing out 4 candles. She didn't need any help this year, and didn't spit on the cake this year, either!
The kids enjoyed the cupcakes while the adults enjoyed sorbets in real fruit shells from Costco.
Limbo. Yes, a broomstick works fine, but this was $10 at Wal-Mart, and it's a little more toddler friendly. Plus, it gave me time to get all the goodie bags handed out. I forgot to take pictures of the goodie bags, but this is what I did: they had super cute Hawaiian patterned tote bags at Dollarama, so I filled those with a sand bucket and shovel (Dollarama), ribbon stick (Dollarama), pineapple notebook and yellow pencil (Michael's dollar bins), Tropical Mike 'n Ike's (Costco), and Hawaiian stickers (dollar store).
Birthday bumps. Deanna reminded me about this fun birthday tradition.
Family picture.
And we're done. Fun party, and the weather was perfect. It was 24 degrees! On April 17!
Here's what we found the girls doing right after the party.
5 comments:
Looks like a fabulous party! I hope you got more sleep the night before than you did last year!!
WOW!!! You should be a professional party planner! That party sounds amazing! When Bentley saw the picture of Elysse at the top of the blog he got so excited and was like "DITTY!!!!" so cute! Happy birthday to Elysse! Sorry I missed it, I worked that day. ps-when are we ever going to live closer?!
Such a fun idea, I love it! You had every detailed covered, and it looks like Elysse was in heaven! I have to admit my favourite picture was the one of Chanelle inside in her chair, hilarious! Happy Birthday to Elysse from us, we miss you guys!
Oh Lynds! That looks great! Max asked me about Elysse the other day when we were looking at some old pictures- "Did she move very far away?"
Love the cupcakes you are so creative missing you
sarah
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