18593

Surprise Luau -45yr- Limbo & Hula Hoops

August 2008

Tiffany in Tulare,ca, USA

Special Mention

I don't remember the last time my mom had a Birthday party so I decided to throw her a Surprise Birthday for her 45th. She has always wanted to do a Luau so I knew that was my theme. I started planning 4 months before because I wanted to go all out for her. My asked my mom's really good friend if we could have her party at her house because she has a HUGE backyard with a outside bar/BBQ area, garden walk way and Built in pool with a 18' rock slide and jump off area that also has a spa under it. She said it would be great.

For the Invitations I decided to do them myself, I have this program I use for school called Adobe Illustrator and did the Invitations using that. I googled beach theme or luau pictures I liked and copied and pasted them to Adobe, I wrote Shh It's a Surprise" In Big letters and under that "Hula on Over for a Surprise Hawaiian Luau as we Celebrate Debbie' 45th Birthday" Date-time_where "Dinner Cocktails Games Performances. Wear your Hawaiian attire.  Prize for Biggest Kahuna!! Bring swimsuits & Towels" Then how to R.S.V.P. I also placed another paper with directions and where to park and to walk around back I rolled to Invitation up and put them in a Plastic Bottle and hand delivered most of them the ones that lived further away I just sent without the bottle. Everyone thought they were so cute.

I ordered all my Leis on eBay because it was way cheaper. I paid less then 30 dollars for 150 leis that was only .18 cents  for each and they were the flower ones ( cute) Then I also bought a Luau Arch at lights up at night for $40 on eBay. I also bought table grass skirts 9ft Leis for hanging and a party favor bag filled with 150 items. Which I used some for the Main Prizes and left the other for kids to grab a few.

I got the major Decorations at the Dollar store I went crazy in there they seemed to have everything. I got everything from Tiki glasses and luau girl napkins and plate to Luau party bags and my Prizes. For the Food I knew a lot of people were coming but I wanted to keep it simple. I canceled on having a roasted pig because I didn't want to scare any kids or even some adults :) so I did shredded pork Rice Hot dogs for kids Grilled Pineapple slices fruit salad potato and pasta Salad 7 layer bean dip salsa and fruit Salsa Then I had 8 dozen macadamia nut cookie ( my mom's Favorite). For the Cake I ordered it at Super target it was a full size cake with the flip flop/beach theme I just didn't have them use the flip flops.  Just the Palm trees. My brother had just came back from the beach and bought some chocolate rock candy and we ended up placing them all over the beach. Then by chance I found a little luau girl and tiki hut at Super target and put them on the cake. It looked so cute My mom loved it. A few weeks before her party there was a fire spinner on the front page of our newspaper and thankfully it had a way to contact him. So I emailed him asked if he could perform at my mom's party and he said he would. I also called a local church who had a Luau dance team called Dance for Christ. They charged a $100 donation for a group of 6 girls to come Luau dance for 30 Minutes during Dinner.

The day of her party we went over to where it was going to be and started setting up Decorations. I put the blow up Arch over the walk way right after the gate where the guest come in. for the deck we hung the 9ft leis around which turned out really cute. She had a big table on her deck and I turned that into my mom's Cake/present/prize table. We hung a table skirt around it and sat the 4 Prizes to the right of it the presents would go to the left of it and the cake in the Middle. Then I bought of Lilys and put them in 2 big vases and put them on the top left and right of the cake between the prizes and Presents. The table really lied cute. I also had ought a bar setup at paper factory with looked like a Tiki hut. That’s where I had all the  liquor. I didn't do much we only had Pina coloa Mai tai's and blue Hawaiians.

For the table for the guest I had bought Bright purple tablecovers. Then places a center piece which was fish netting laid out across the middle of the table then a big round glass bowl filled with water and two floating Rose candlesThen I put shells around the bowl. I did this for each table. I Borrowed 4 shade tents and sat the up over the table and hung Lanterns from them that I had bought from the dollar store. The area the I ws putting the food was at her BBQ area she has a food area on the outside part Which turned out to be great. I had precooked all the food and was using the BBQ's to keep them warm and when it was time we just took them off and on the food area.

When Guest started to arrive ( About 4) they would walk around back and be greeted by a luau Girl (My friend ) who placed a Lei around them and welcomed them. When everyone started to come in they could either go swimming or play in her Beach ( she had  beach area the was right next to the pool which also had a kiddie pool area that was apart of the main pool) My mom Arrived about 30 minutes later and was COMPLETELY shocked she started to cry. Everyone just sat around and talked and ate chip and dip just relaxing then about 5 everyone started to eat and the Luau Dancers started performing which was a big hit everyone loved them. Then even stayed the rest of the party to just hang out and take pictures.

After Dinner I started the games which were Limbo Hula hoops How many?. I didn't want to do to many games.  Limbo was a Big hit everyone was doing it even my 80 year old grandma. Hula hoops not all the Adults did them but the kids loved it and then How Many? Was a game were I put TONS of macadamia nuts in a jar and when they first arrived they could write down how many they thought were in there.  There were 725 Nuts.  I had 4 prizes each the same except for one thing.  The prizes were a Sand pail filled with a Beach towel Sunscreen goggles bubbles sunglasses and then each one had something different in them one had two freezable mugs one had Sundae cups and a ice cream spoon that was freezable one had Pineapple Lotion bath Gel rock salt for feet then the las one had 4 colorful glasses and little  plastic pineapple ice things the freeze and you can use them as ice cubes( don't know what there called) But everyone loved the prizes.

After the games I had 2 more games just for kids one was for older kids the could swim good. Each one got a ping pong ball and had to push it with ONLY there noses to the other side of the pool ( which was Funny) then musical towels. I did this because I have tons of little toys and stuff left over from the party favor bag. Which parents thought it was nice to let them win stuff too. After that everyone swam and just had fun. I had burned a couple CD's with my mom's favorite songs from the 80's which made her get up and dance causing many other to do the same. It was so Funny but So much fun.  Even my daughter who is 2 was out dancing with her Nana.  Then at 8:30 after it started getting dark the fire spinner came to do his Performance Which the Kids went NUTS for. I laid out towels for them to sit on that was up front but not to close to him. He did 3 songs and only charged me $25 for it because he said he messed up Which no one cared. ALL and all My mom had a wonderful Birthday and it was so worth seeing her have a blast. After this My brother wants a Luau for his Birthday."

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