11402

Beach Bash - Cardboard Water Waves

June 2005

Terri in Metairie, LA USA

Honorable Mention

VICTORIA'S BEACH BASH!   Splish splash, we had Victoria's Beach Bash! For our daughter's 8th birthday party we went with a Beach theme this year.  The party was held at a local country club with pool and baby splash pool.  The party was in the late afternoon as thought it would be cooler time of day. 

The invitation had a beach ball on it and it read Splish Splash It's Victoria's Beach Bash.. Swim on over for some fun in the sun etc. On the envelopes, I customized them with stenciled beach ball and sunshine.   

Colors and decorations  bright colors like those found in a beach ball for tablecloths. On the food and drink tables used all turquoise to represent the water.  I had contacted a children-clothing store that had beach theme decorations and they donated them to me when they finished using during their beach promotion.  We had cardboard waves of water on the food and drink tables and also 2 very large surfboards made out of foamboard that we also placed on the food tables.  

Food:  cowabunga hamburgers, hang loose hot dogs, surfs up hot sausage, seaside grilled chicken, sandy beaches turkey mignons, surfin safari pork n beans, Oceanview chicken cabbage salad, Elaine's famous potato salad, seashore blue Jell-O w/ gummies such as fish, stars, and gummy lifesavers w/ gummy bears that looked like they were swimming in water (blue Jell-O), Hang ten 7 layer dip, catch a wave crawfish cornbread dip, potato sticks, Fun in the sun watermelon fruit salad basket, chips, sea animal gummies, Starbucks ice coffee, freeze pops, soft drinks, bottled water, kid drinks, hospitality punch (rum) and beer.  Each item was labeled with menu tags with names to suit the theme. I put die cut beach buckets tags on the menu tags to go along with beach theme and put them on skewers and stuck them in the food.  All the chips, chocolate/peanut butter chex mix recipe, fruit loops, etcà were served in beach buckets with shovels.  All the drink containers had beach theme clear stickers on them as well to tie in with theme.     

Cake  had 12 double layer round cake decorated like a beach ball.  There were about 5 colors to match the beach ball colors on the invitation.  The cake was beautiful. The kids of course had fun selecting what color they wanted on the beach ball for their piece of cake.  We served vanilla ice cream with the cake. We also had almond cookies decorated adorably with the beach theme (swimsuit, sunshine, palm tree, sunglasses, fish, beach ball, Victoria, surf up & splish splash written on some cookies, #8 for daughter's b/day).   

Entertainment: 2 pools  one kids splash pool and regular size pool with diving board w/ 2 lifeguards.  Also had swings/play area for kids.   Beach visors station  purchased at dollar store plastic swim visors (3 visors in pack for $1) and had the kids decorate with sea life foam stickers purchased at Michael's craft store.  My cousin helped with this and personalized some with child's name.   The visors turned out adorable and it is something the kids could use in the pool and take home for use later as well.  

Surfs Up surfing station.- Purchased two blue tarps  one on ground and the other around two chairs to make it higher and look like a wave.  We then decorated the wave with a few fish and few signs that I made on computer that said surfin safari, surfs up, ride a wave etc.  We had a wooden surfboard for the kids to get on to act like they were surfin. We took pictures of each child on it and plan to include with thank you notes. The surfboard moved as I had a friend put a long thick strip of wood along the bottom of the surfboard in the center so when you stand on it the board it rocks side to side as if you were surfing.  This was really cute and a lot of fun for the kids. 

Each child at this station got one of the popular rubber motivational bracelets that everyone is wearing now and bright color cord rings for finger.   We also had several beach theme cds such as Beach boys and other Hawaiian party theme music.    Sand station  we filled a 2-ring pool with sand and put beach play toys in it.  The kids enjoyed playing in the sand.    We had 90 guest at the party so a nice group.  Everyone had a great time! 

The kids loved swimming.  Friends and family also helped at the party and also with the tear down which was a big help as well.     Best advise  plan ahead so have time to look for things and get things together.   This is a really fun theme as the kids love to play in water.  We had something for all age groups, which was nice as children ages ranged from under 1 yr. to age 11.   Hope this gives you some ideas.

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