Hawaiian Luau Party -13yr- Beach Balls & Flamingos

This year I am turning 13. I love to help plan parties, including my own! So this is my plan: My birthday is mid-october, but I wanted to do a Hawaiian Luau. So I decided to have my party early, as in late-September. I talked to my mom, got her opinion on the situation, and we came up with a budget.

INVITATIONS: We ordered quite a few things for the party (will talk about more later on) But for the invitations we bought already printed on paper, then on microsoft word we printed up the usual: what when time rsvp. But we also added to bring a towel etc. and to please rsvp by a certain date so we can know food wise, how much we needed to buy. I did buy the paper in bulk to save more and because I am inviting a lot of friends (girls only.)

DECORATIONS: We went to the dollar store and bought most of the decorations. I bought inflatable beach balls, flamingos, and pineapples. Beach balls to play with and match, flamingos and pineapples to look cute with the scenery. I also got matching hawaiian tablecloths, plates, napkins, and orange cups to go along with the theme. I also got two beach comber hats. I will flip them upside down and I will put chips inside them. I also purchased a string with fake hibiscus flowers on them so when you walk in you brush past them and they will hang from an easy-up. For a dollar each I got a couple of hurricane cups that I would put redvines and gummy worms to decorate and eat.

Also for a dollar I got a pink and white beach ball to use and also to match all the other décor. I also got two signs to put in the ground; hula girl and tiki. And I got other hanging signs in the form of tikis. I also want to decorate a sign saying Taylor's  13th Birthday!" and get some matching colorful balloons so at the beach the party will be easily recognizable. I also purchased little dollar lanterns in the colors of my party.

ACTIVITIES: I will let the party flow and I wont want to be too pushy as to what we would be doing especially with a lot of people. I am having beach balls out and paddle ball and other little two player or individual games if people don’t feel like being in the water and so they are not bored. We could dance cause there would be music playing in the background no matter what. Not hawaiian though because it would be to stero-type and I wanted people to be able to recognize sing and dance to the music. Since we were at the beach we would also obviously go in the water.

GAMES: since I don’t want to be too pushy and have a strict order I just planned one game to play. Limbo! We have a pole at our house we can just use that and those who don’t want to play don’t have to. For the winner the prize will be and orange beach bucket orange water balloons and a beach ball.

COSTUMES: Since we are going to be at the beach the guests will be wearing bathing suits so that will be going along with my theme anyways. But at the start of the party I will ask everyone to wear a lei provided by me but besides that no costumes especially at the beach.

PARTY SNACKS: For just finger foods we will be having two type of chips for candy Redvine's M&M's and gummy worms. For fruit we will have watermelon and grapes because you can buy them in bulk. For the main meal we are going to have Costco pizza; pepperoni and cheese Finally the drinks will be lemonade sprite and coka-cola.

CAKE: instead of doing the traditional cake I decided since we were at the beach we should do smore's and it is easy to clean up! And our spot on the beach will be near a fire-pit for easy access and warmth.

FAVORS: Since I am inviting so many people doing favors or goody bags would be hard plus now we are getting to the age where "Goody Bags" are so old and can be very expensive. So I figured everyone can keep their lei and if they won limbo they would have that prize.

To help myself out I also came up with an easily change-able schedule it is never bad to be too organized! Haha anyways: 45 min:let everyone arrive   45 min:play in water   45 min: eat dinner   30 min: do limbo   15: min dance/play in water   30 min: smore's! then almost everyone would start to go home. Thought I might have two of my best friends over depending on what my mom thinks. Some tips I would have for planing a party: talk to your parents about the budget.

Don’t tell everyone about your party or they might get too many ideas or get mad or whatever. Search this site and others like it for ideas and organize those ideas for ex. You want to play 10 games for your spa b day party but you have enough time for two write all the ideas down and do process of elimination think about your guests and what they might like or something you think that they might of never heard of before. Also create a checklist of everything you need and put two columns one for if you own or have bought it the other for at the party to make sure you have everything.

Before you come up with anything pick a theme that can decide boy/girl food destination number of people drinks games invitations cake favors decorations etc.  Another thing is that once you know your theme come up with a guest list and don’t pick people cause they are popular or you have seen them once in the hallways of school make sure you really know that your guests are truly your friends! Also be loose on the schedule if your guests are getting tired of a game see what they want to do or do something else.

This site has many fabulous ideas to help out they even gave me some of my ideas. I hope you like my party and ideas! Lastly I would like to thank this great site because without it I wouldn’t have half the ideas I have now it has really helped me plan my party and I hope it does yours too! Peace love and smiles - taylor :)"