1st Birthday Luau!   For my daughter's first birthday we had a Birthday Luau.  The invitation was a  picture of a flip-flop slipper. I embellished the invitation by adding my own die cut flower & a flower shaped brad to the slipper which held the invitation info and the direction sheet together. Also in the invitation we told people that they were welcomed to wear aloha attire.  It was fun seeing everyone in sun dresses and aloha shirts in the middle of January.    As the guests arrived I had greeters (my brother & sister in-law) who adorned the men with shell leis, the women with a flower clip for their hair, and floral leis for the children. I also had Hawaiian music playing as everyone arrived.    We had to use an indoor venue for this Luau because my daughter's birthday is in January.  So I tried to bring a beach-like scene indoors. By doing this, I placed large market umbrellas around and then took those inexpensive beach mats and duct taped them together to make one big mat.  Then I took beach chairs and layed some colorful beach towels on the mats. Since there were many toddlers at the party, I took large yellow buckets and filled them with building block type of toys and stuffed crabs and fish from my children's playroom. Therefore this made a safe environment for the children to play in. I also purchased some artificial palm trees and hung stuffed monkeys in the trees. It was great because I already owned the palm trees and monkeys as decor from my house. I had a hula bar for the children, which I took a lemonade stand and decorated it with raffia fringe and silk flower leis. I also took a small slate board and wrote what drinks were offered. The drinks were served in those plastic pineapple cups. In order to know whose drink was whose, I made my own drink charms.  I took pipecleaners and decorated them with plastic charms and beads.   For the crafts I put out clay and had decorate your own beach slippers.  When you put out clay, I always give the child a paper plate with their name on it. It keeps the clay more contained and then the child can take home their creation still on the paper plate.   For the tables I had different decor at each table.  I placed party fish netting on top of the table cloth along with a small palm tree centerpiece or pineapples and bananas.  Then I scattered sea shells, small plastic fish or loose flowers on top of the netting. I also filled small tin buckets with gold fish for the kids to snack on at the table.   As for the adult favors, I found these very reasonable small frames online that were in the shape of surf boards and aloha shirts. I placed my daughter's picture in 1/2 of the frames and the other half, I put a note saying Thank you for coming to her 1st birthday party. These were placed at each placesetting.  The birthday cake was in the shape of two slippers.  Also for dessert the big hit was the chocolate fountain.  Everyone loved dipping their own skewered marshmellows, rice krispy treats and strawberries.  I also hired my older daughter's halau to perform some hula dances which was a big hit.   The children's favors were handled paper bags and I found already painted wooden pieces in shape of slippers for the girls and fish for the boys at a craft store. I hot glued these on to the solid colored bag. Inside the goodie bags I placed plastic squirt fish, bucket sun hats, sea animal hand puppets and chapstick. I had so much fun planning this special party for my daughter!