My daughter is a water baby and wanted to have a pool party for her 8th birthday. We decided on a luau theme for her pool party. We first started with a color theme and we used hot pink, lime green, and only hints of turquoise blue.

INVITATIONS: My daughter invited 11 kids for a total of 12 girls. We made our own invitations. I bought some white card stock and printed wording in hot pink. Then I bought some cute hot pink hibiscus flower embellishments to put around the wording. Easy to do and cost less. All items bought from Michael's cost less than $10. The wording: In big lettering I wrote Splish Splash! It'a a birthday bash! Wear your swimsuit and bring a towel Hula on over to our Hukilau!" Luau Pll be flippin and floppin it'll be great! _____ hopes you can come cuz she's turning eight!" Turned out really cute!

DECORATIONS: We bought a bouquet (12 balloons) of latex balloons in our pink and green colors and separated then into bunches of 3 balloons and set them all around our patio area. Balloon bouquet from Party City $8. We bought (also from Party City) luau themed décor; a sign that says Luau party $2.50 hanging hibiscus strands $3 for 5 strands grass skirts to put around the tables $4 each skirt. We also used streamers in hot pink and lime green and randomly draped our patio roof. As each girl arrived we placed a lei around their neck said "Aloha" and invited back to the pool.

GAMES/ACTIVITIES: We let the girls swim for 2 hours in the pool and then we ate lunch. I will list our food items later. After lunch we played games. First we played "Pin the coconut on the palm tree". I bought a palm tree cut out ($3 from Oriental trading) and I had to make the coconuts myself. I bought brown textured card stock $3 for 6 sheets from Michael's and cut out a bunch of circles. I put each girls name on one coconut. The girls (blindfolded) had to try to place their coconut closest to the middle of the palm. The girls giggled over this! A prize was awarded for the girl who got closest. Prizes will be listed later. Second activity was "Bobbing for Fish". I bought a large tub in hot pink. The tub was made for drinks and ice but it worked fabulous for this activity. I bought the tub from Party City on sale for $3. I filled the tub with water. Then I placed floating tropical fish (Oriental trading 12 fish for $6) in the tub. The girls had to place their hands behind their back and try to catch a fish with their teeth. The girl who caught the fish with the star on it's belly won a prize. I had previously used a black sharpie to draw a star on a random fish. The last activity was the Limbo! I bought a blow up limbo stick (ebay $3) and limbo song (amazon.com $6 for the whole CD) the girls two at a time limbo under the stick. The last girl standing won a prize.

PRIZES: I bought 4 prizes 1 for each game (3 games) and 1 for the bday girl. They were light up hibiscus bracelets from Party City $1 each. The girls loved these!

FOOD: I ordered a bunch of pizzas for lunch. We had a huge bowls of watermelon and pineapple and mango and chips and pretzels for snacks. I served bottled water and Hansens soda to drink.

FAVORS: I bought 12 party bags from Oriental Trading $28 for 8 bags $4 individual bags. Each was a different colored (purple red or blue) small hibiscus tote that each contained a pair of pink flamingo foam sunglasses hibiscus tattoos a dolphin money holder (also a different color) a flip flop necklace flip flop deck of cards hibiscus lip gloss Aloha bracelet and a mini inflatable beach ball in hibiscus print. These were adorable!

NOTE: This party was super fun and my daughter's friend even copied the idea for her party! The whole party was 4 hours and went fairly smoothly although you will have to keep to the time line with 12 excited girls."