School's Out Luau - Tiki Bar & Flip Flop Craft

Ok, so this year I have decided that I am going to host a School's Out! Luau for me and 5 of my closest friends, to be held the night after the last day of school.

For my invitations, I found a website called http://invitationland.com/free-invitation-maker.html?cardtoload=7, where they have customizable invitations that you can print out, I chose the invites with hibiscus flowers on it. You are able to customize the color of the flowers and the background of the invitations, so I am doing purple and yellow flowers and a lavender background. This is a great budget friendly way to do invitations, since it doesn't really cost anything unless you want to count the price of paper and ink.

For DECORATIONS  I have decided to go all out. My mom has a lei garland from OTC that was previously used for my little sister's 5th birthday a few years ago when she had a beach theme, so that will be going around the top of my trampoline. We have a huge yard, it's about 4 acres, so we'll have plenty of space. Our swing set will also be decorated with balloons, streamers, etc., and we'll have tons of water balloons and the slip n slide set up along with our pool.  The sleepover part of the party will take place in our open kitchen/dining room/family room area. I am going to decorate our kitchen as a Tiki Bar. I bought 8 tiki cup (the good reusable plastic kind, not the kind that you throw away), 18 plates, 24 napkins, 1 tablecloth, 1 music CD, 2 wall hangings that look like tiki gods, and 1 centerpiece. I only had to pay shipping (and 2 credits), which only cost me $10-a major steal. So this is the stuff I will be using to decorate this room, along with red and yellow balloons and a few white streamers. In the dining room it will be decorated to have the ambiance of an underwater theme, since the walls in this part are blue. I am going to put blue and white streamers and balloons everywhere in there and I will have various sea life blow ups and stuffed animals to complete the look (I already own these) The family room theme will be a beach theme, this is where we will sleep as well. I will have a palm tree made of an old bamboo curtain rod with construction paper leaves, that will have 6 coconut pinatas (see games) around the base of it. I will also have a boardwalk in this room, where I will lay down brown butcher paper on the floor for the boardwalk, and I will have different shops along it, which will be decorated TV trays with different activities on them (see activities). 

GAMES/ACTIVITIES: As everyone is arriving, they will be greeted with a lei (found @ OTC for $6.99 for 12-on sale) and then they will go set their stuff in the playroom so it is out of the way, and we will be going to the boardwalk for our first activity, which is decorating flip-flops with glow in the dark paint and markers, you can get flip flops for $1 per pair at Michaels, I would suggest asking sizes beforehand if you don't already know, and trying to get all the same color so there is no fighting. When everyone gets there and finishes making their flip-flops we are going to have the first few hours just swimming, water balloon fights, tanning, socializing, and jumping on the trampoline, seeing as for a teens party you can have a few structured games, but not everyone will want to spend the whole time on a strict schedule, one thing might take longer or shorter than you thought it would, and that's OK, with teens you should just go with the flow. When everyone seems to be tired out from swimming we're going to head to the next activity, which will be decorating shutter shades with glow in the dark paint! I am getting shutter shades from OTC for $7.99 for a dozen, and we will use any leftover paint from making the flip-flops to customize them. Make sure to do any crafts that need to dry early on so they will be dry for later ;), you'll see why.

After we are done decorating our shutter shades we will head out to the trampoline for our next activity, which will be surfing. What you do is you get a boogie board and one person is on the boogie board, and there are 2 or 3 kids trying to make them fall off by jumping on the trampoline, but the catch is they can't touch the person, I will have one person use the stopwatch on my iPod touch to get everyone's times, and whoever stays on the longest will get a prize. They have to be standing up, and if any part of their body is off the board they are out. After this game we will go to do our next activity, which will be Breaking open the coconuts!! Before the party I am going to paper mache 6 balloons (one for each guest) and when they dry I will fill them with a mini beach monkey beach ball from OTC ($5.99 for 12), glow in the dark star shaped silly bandz ($4.99 for like 72 from OTC), Glow in the dark tattoos, $4.99 for 72 @ OTC, and tropical flavored gum from the dollar store (a few pieces, not a whole pack). Then I will paper mache the hole and spray paint them brown. The catch is they can use anything except for their hands to break open the coconuts! This should take about 15 minutes or so.

When we are done with that we will probably eat dinner (see food) After we eat we will go on a treasure hunt which my mom will set up for us with the prize at the end being glow sticks. Along with the glow sticks will be a note saying to go inside to get all of your glow stuff and put on the tattoos and to then go out to the backyard for night swimming!!! Our only source of light will be our glow stuff and our pool light. We will swim and jump on the trampoline some more, and when we are done it should be about 11 pm, so we'll go inside and get our PJs on, and we'll go into the kitchen to make our own ice cream sundaes (see food) and chill while watching the movie Billboard Dad, which I know none of my friends have ever seen before, and it's only $2.90 on Amazon, (in the movie it has the Olsen twins-one is a diver and the other is a surfer goes w/ the summer theme..) When the movie is over and we're not all asleep by then, we will put in the movie Holiday in the Sun, also with the Olsen twins in it, and maybe play like truth or dare or something, but we'll most likely be asleep. Another fun game is Body surfing" where one person is the surfer and the rest of the people lay down in a line with their sholders touching on their stomachs and then simultaniously roll onto their backs while one person is laying on top of them. It sounds complicated but if you do it right it's really fun the person on top "rides the wave". In the morning we'll wake up eat breakfast and swim all morning until everyone's parents come to pick them up.

FOOD- For food we're going to have something like make your own pizza but it will be on goldfish shaped bread!! You can get this at like Giant or somewhere just add sauce cheese and any other toppings and stick it in the oven. With these we will have goldfish assorted tropical fruits and blue Jell-O for dessert. We will have an ice cream sundae bar later for those who want it. For breakfast we will just have cereal and fruit nothing fancy less stress for my parents.

COSTUMES- No costumes are really required for this party except for a bathing suit shorts and PJs. We will have our leis shutter shades tattoos glow sticks and flip-flops that we will wear to go night swimming. COST- this is actually a pretty cheap party if you know where to look. I bought/plan to buy: shutter shades: $7.99 @ OTC flip flops-$6 for 6 pairs @ Michaels Balloons 25 for $1 @ dollar tree (3 packs) Blue and White streamers $2 for 2 packs @ dollar tree glow necklaces and bracelets- 6 of each for $3 Leis- $6.99 for 12 @ OTC Glow in the dark star bandz- $5 @ OTC Inflatable mini beach monkey beach balls- $5.99 for 12 @ OTC glow in the dark tattoos- $5 for 72 @ OTC drink umbrellas-$1 for 10 @ dollar tree gum- $1 for a big pack @ dollar tree water balloons- $2 for 50 @ Giant glow in the dark paint- $5 @ Michaels 8 tiki cup (the good reusable plastic kind not the kind that you throw away) 18 plates 24 napkins 1 tablecloth 1 music CD 2 wall hangings that look like tiki gods and 1 centerpiece-$10 listia.com and Billboard Dad movie- $2.90 Amazon.com. The total cost of everything that I have to buy that I don't already own is exactly $61.90. This final cost does not include food since like I said I don't really care about the food we'll just eat what we have at home since we usually have all of the above items. A few of the decorations will be home made and will not cost anything and the invitation cost is not included seeing as I am just printing them from home.

THANK YOU NOTES- I will send each guest home with an Aeropostale bag (look for the to go on sale- you can sometimes get them really cheap) with a tag made on the computer that says, "Thanks for coming to my School's Out! Luau!!'  Have an awesome summer!  And it will have like a dolphin on it or something. This is what they will use to put all their prizes and crafts in throughout the party. Sometimes you can find Aero bags for like $5 or less especially at like the outlets so 6 bags would only put you out $30 which isn't bad and you know they will actually use some of the things like the aero bag and the flip flops so at least you're providing stuff they are likely to use again.

FAVORS- Each guest will go home with their shutter shades flip flops glow in the dark silly bandz a few glow in the dark tattoos their beach monkey beach ball some tropical flavored gum drink umbrells if they want to keep them their tiki cup and their Aeropoatale bag to put it all in. After the party I will post any photos or videos that are made on Facebook so we can always remember my awesome end of 7th grade luau!!!"