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Hawaiian Theme - Fill the Suitcase Relay

Feb. 2004

DeAnne in Houlton, Maine 04730

Special Mention

Hawaiian Theme Party  For my duaghter's 8 year old birthday party we turned our house and yard in Northern Maine into sunny Honalulu!!!

For starters we sent invitations with fish on them (ordered from Oriental Trading) and inside we put tickets inviting the guests join us on a flight to  Hawaii and told them to bring swimsuits, towels and sunscreen!! We arranged the wording to include our address, date, time, etc. as part of the flight and tour information!!

Then we got busy decorating!!  We had ordered things earlier from Oriental trading, and online on Ebay to use at the party. From a local carpet store we got hugh cardboard rolls and we made palm tree tops to glue on!! These we put in our yard.  We already had a large kiddy pool set up for the kids to get in.  We hid small gum coins and real coins in the sand box for the kids to dig in later as part of a game.  We filled a new small kiddy pool with water and real goldfish which the kids got to take  home later!! 

On one side of our house we tacked up a fish theme shower curtain and hooked a hose and sprinkler to it.  We set up a buffet table and decorated it with paper cut to look like a hoola skirt…we had several little tables set up to eat on and had hula theme decorations set up on those. I had brought a small television and vcr our and had that set with a tape that taught children how to do the hula.  We also had a cd set up with hula them and hawaiian music to play for atmosphere.  We had a small tent set up with arts and crafts.  Leading to all of this we had a  large tent set up in our side yard so the kids could not see all the other stuff until they walked through the tent "arrival gate" to Hawaii!! We decorated our dining room (the first room the guest came in) to look like and airport with signs such as baggage area (where we put empty suitcases in a pile!!), and posters of desinations. 

When the guests arrived we gave them name tags with their names in Hawaiian (which we found earlier on the internet) and gave them pre-printed fish pattern bags (from Oriental trading) that they decorated, those we later used as goody bags.

Our first game was "fill the suitcase"!!  I pretended that I had not packed yet packed for the trip and we went out to our side yard where there was a big pile of "stuff" to take on the trip and a hugh suitcase.  They had to race, putting whatever the item was on and running and putting it on the suitcase.  We had recorded "Vacation" from the RugRats vacation episode and played that as the kids raced!!!  They got a flower lei when they finished.

Then back inside to the living room which we had made into a airplane!! We moved a lot of the furniture out and set straight chairs in a row like on a plane.  My Mom "the stewardess" pushed a little cart and gave the kids individual bags of goldfish crackers and Capri Sun Fruit drink. We talked like you were actually on a flight.  For the movie we watched Mary Kate and Ashley Hawaiian Vacation that got us in the mood for fun!! Then after the "plane landed"  we went outside and through the tent to Hawaii! We had a bottle with a message inside in the fish pool, that had a message to   go dig in the sand (sandbox) for buried treasure which the kids did.

Then we had a hot potato game with water balloons, then the kids took off their outer clothes (swimsuits were under) and splashed and played in the pool.  My Mom went and picked up the pizzas (we had ordered them earlier). While she was gone we played pin the banana on the tree (a picture I drew of a banana tree on cardboard tacked to our house!!)  The child who won got a real banana!!  We then watched the tape on learning to hula dance and the kids danced along with it!!  We also did some arts and crafts….a edible "sand project" I ordererd from oriental trading (candy powder you put in plastic containers, necklaces or bracelets with colored beads that were sealife theme and leis…. After that we ate, pizza, cupcakes that had teddy grahams on them decorated like hula girls and plastic palm trees and a "tropic punch" with ice cream and Hawaiian punch.  We sang happy birthday then and had the birthday girl blow out her cupcake.   

As they left through the "tent airport" to go home we gave them their goody bags filled with fish theme items (from oriental trading)stickers, tiny stuffed fishes, pencils,etc..  Also, some of the kids whose mom gave them the ok took home goldfish in plastic bags from the "pond" We had wanted to play the limbo but did not have enough time!! It was a fun party for all!!

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