last year I had a luau theme party for my daughter.  we have a pool, so that covers most of the activity.  \*food! I served your basic hotdogs and chips with squeeze-its or the like to drink. I made a cake and cup cakes to look like the beach... ice all with white, add blue icing or sprinkles to one edge, then add graham cracker crumbs to the rest, this creates the water and the beach, then fold a stick of gum to resemble a folding chair, also add an umbrella (used in drinks) and don't forget the gum ball "beach ball".  \*decorations! the cake was the center piece of the "party" table, I also added tikis and leis as well as a "grass skirt" using green streamers. i also put the treat bags on this table. \*goodie bags! I put in sunglasses, a pool floatie, a noise maker and candy of course. they also had crafted items to take home. I made grass skirts for all the girls with the green streamers. I gave each girl a plastic ruffled lei.  \*crafts! for a sleep shirt- I cut flower shapes out of sponges and had the girls create a lei around the neck of a large white tee shirt with fabric paints then they used a cheap paint brush to make the grass skirt at the bottom. they also got to build a lei of paper flower cut-outs alternated with 1" pieces of straw. I covered the eating/craft (eat first and then do the crafting) table with large rolls of plain paper and drew flowers around the edge- then let the guests draw when ever there was "down time" \*thank you notes! for years I have always taken a picture of my child sitting with the gift giver while opening the gift, this is included in their thank you card. even if there is no gift, each guest is thanked for attending and sharing in the celebration.