It's A Luau!

Make the birthday a bit of paradise, go luau!

While your littlest girls may not appreciate the luau scene, your teens and tweens surely will. This party is great if you want to invite both boys and girls too, because it’s not too foofy for the boys.

Surf, Sand and Sun

If you can’t host this party at the water’s edge, then fake it. Fill your back yard with ticki lights, a few beach balls and a wading pool or two. Be sure each guest is appropriately adorned with a flower lei.

A few island extras that will help the Hawaiian feel are: paper umbrellas for the drinks, a zany coco-nut bra (use it as a center piece, no one has to wear it), Gilligan hats and paper lanterns.

The right music will really create the mood too. Choose some nice ukulele tunes or a beach sound track.

MMM, roast boar

Authentic luau food could really drive you crazy trying to prepare it! A pit roasted pig for example would not only require you to purchase and transport a whole dead pig, but also to dig a pit in your yard. We can just leave that to the experts. (If you know one, take advantage.)

You are feeding picky teenagers. Choose teen favorites and add a tropical twist. Serve Pizza with pineapple. Serve fruit trays heavy on the mangos, pineapples, papayas and coconut. Have chips served with a mango or pineapple salsa dip.

The cake can be any kind of coconut cake. This does not put chocolate out of the running. There are lovely recipes for German Chocolate cakes topped with a coconut, butter and nut frosting. Delicious!

Silly Party tricks

No luau party would be complete without a limbo contest. Grab a bamboo stick or your broom and see how low you can go! For some reason, teens really like this.

Once the limbo has run its course other games like, a hula contest complete with grass skirts, will be a scream, especially if the boys get involved.

The clothing relay race is always fun. Assemble a pile of particularly lurid tourist garb (straw hats, khaki pants, loud shirts etc.) Place a pile of clothing for each on the far end from the finish line. One at a time each member of the team runs to the pile puts on one of the garments and runs back to the next player. They pass that item to the next runner and play continues until the first team has one player wearing all the items.
Most off all have a laid back fun birthday at the beach.