Luau Party!! Ideas?

[KDC]

Alright, I'm SO sick of this crap cold weather. It's either snowing or freezing due to this "polar vortex". I decided the kids and I need a little pick-me-up. I am currently planning a Luau party =) I'm breaking out the lei's, fruity drinks, sun & fun!! I just ordered some fun sunglasses, crafts, fun straws and decor from Oriental Trading (free shipping!) and we're having ourselves a Par-tay! I ordered fun fish hats and sticker create-a-scene (easy for little guys).

Anyone have some fun idea's for food, games, sensory bins? I want this to be a fun distraction from this nasty winter =)

[Blackcat31]

Tons of cute ideas here

http://www.pinterest.com/cherylpool/kids-birthday-party-hawaiian-luau/

[Laurel]

Beach balls are lots of fun to play with inside especially for babies.

They'll find all kinds of things to do with small towels or even beach towels. Just give them some without instructions.

Coloring pages with beach theme.

If you have older children you can make a beach cake. We did. Light brown sugar was sand. Blue cotton candy was water. Fruit stripe gum was the beach towels that the teddy graham beachgoers laid on...pepperidge farm fish, etc.

Laurel

[Cat Herder]

Oriental Trading practically holds the market in all things luau....

Pineapple and cheese kabobs are a fun theme snack.....

These look fun!!

[daycare]

we made jello, added umbrellas, fruit and etc.

limbo

we had a relay race with grass skirts, coconut bra, lay, shirts, etc.

then a hula hoop contest

we went bowling with a coconut knocking down pineapples.

dig a sea shell dig for buried treasure.

the kids all did a dance to surfin usa

everyone dressed the part it was a ton of fun. OH and ours is a pot luck

oh yeah I forgot, we had a luau pig pinata....it was pretty funny...

[melilley]

How fun, a par tay!!! I want to come...

[finsup]

We need to do this! An indoor picnic has always been fun. Typical summer foods, hot dogs, chips, lemondae etc (I know, not the healthiest but it's only one day!) When I was little (my mom did home daycare) she filled up our kiddie pool with water, turned the heat up to 75+ and had us all in our bathing suits. I still remember it. That being said she is a very brave woman for taking that on with a bunch of 3 and 4yr olds though .

[Josiegirl]

Haha as much as I think this topic was resurrected to sell sunglasses , this might be a great idea for winter break next week!!! Don't have time to order anything but can sour dollar store, wal-mart, etc. Great idea!!

[mamamanda]

Great idea! We just had an indoor picnic earlier this week and I couldn't believe how much it boosted spirits, especially mine.

[MsLisa]

I did this before when I was a Nanny! It was a lot of fun.

I had a "Jump-o-lean" ball pit like thing, filled it with only blue, green and yellow balls to make the ocean to swim in. I also threw in stuffed animal fishes, sea creatures, and got luau inflatables from the dollar store. Had beach towels towels down and blocks out to make sandcastles. For craft I bought a bag of white sea shells from the dollar store and we painted them. For sensory I also bought 3 bags of different colored sand and a Tupperware bin from the dollar store (sense the trend yet?)and let them play with the Littlest Pet Shops in them (not pictured sadly). One of my favourite themes that I did to be honest.

OH! And I got those luau skirts and necklaces for dress up too. (Dollar store again...)

[Unregistered]

We had kids wear swim suits and shorts and beach towels, turned up the heat.

We use big beach umbrellas outside in the summer, so brought those inside and laid them on their sides for our Taco Cabana - kids laid out their towels beside the umbrellas and ate there. (Our theme was Mexico, not Hawaii.)

Put tons of seashells, sand dollars, starfish of all sizes in the big sand area we made out of cardboard and tarp. Shovels, funnels, cups, trucks, etc in there too.

Laid out a fish shower curtain and had water play there. Kids pretend to "swim in the ocean" on the shower curtain.

Kids used play money to buy their tacos from the taco stand, which was our play kitchen decorated with fish.

Used the rocking boat, life jackets, fishing caps/sun hats with magnetic fish poles and fish.

[Unregistered]

Put on "Wipeout" and have kids pretend to surf. It's real fun to see them balance when their feet are positioned like on a surfboard, and they love it!