Moana Madness

Sorry guys, you won’t find any bourbon talk in this post. I’m on the mend from a ridiculous stomach infection, and I can barely handle apples, let alone bourbon. Maybe next week.

Instead, let’s talk about the Little’s recent birthday. If you can’t tell from the title that we had a Moana party, um, I mean, I don’t know what to say. How did you not know this was going to be about Moana??

I may have outdone myself. I even texted Gina saying I have established a standard that I do NOT want to maintain!! I’ve never really done the licensed character party (i.e. Frozen or Elmo or Spiderman). We’ve always built parties around cake and so far the girls have been fine with it. I prefer picking a color palette and scoring deals at the dollar store to shelling out a bunch of 20-dollar-bills for licensed character plates and napkins.

So, when the Little asked for a Moana party, we instantly tweaked it to be a Luau. Don’t get me wrong – Moana’s great. But why should the kids get all the fun? I kinda pride myself on kid parties that are also fun for the adults. Like the time I had a grownup bubble bar for a bubble birthday! People do Christmas in July, why not a Luau in February? Besides, with everyone whining for winter to be over, a Luau is bound to be a winner! Although I would argue, spring is still a few weeks away, why are we surprised if it snows?

Back to the cake. A luau theme screams for coconut and pineapple and mango and all things tropical! I wasn’t terribly interested in trying a new recipe last minute so instead of attempting pineapple upside down cake, the Little agreed to coconut cupcakes. I also made vanilla cakes with raspberry frosting since I’m currently tinkering with a new recipe for the biz. The rest of the menu practically built itself: teriyaki sliders with sesame ginger coleslaw; coconut rice; chips with mango salsa.

Wait! We need one more tropical dish – pineapple ham skewers. Gina and co came over to hang out the day before the party and ended up helping with a a bit of prep. As they chopped and skewered, the kids stole chunks of ham from the table at every opportunity. Somehow we ended up calling the skewers Pua Pops – I think the Little blurted it out during one of her attempts to steal a skewer. I realize that’s meaningless if you’ve not seen the  flick, but we thought it was hilarious. Naming the food after the movie characters? Oooh, I guess the cupcakes shoulda been named after those little coconut pirates, huh. Kakamora!!

In keeping with the Moana theme, what about an official party drink? Hei Hei punch! Now, I’m a fan of crazy punch, aka white sangria, party punch, etc; drinks that go down easy and are serious trouble! Usually I set up a wide assortment of options at our parties and end up spending half my time manning the bar! This time I wised up and went with a few specific drinks and left the rest alone. It also saved me from buying Malibu that’ll never get used again!

Hei Hei punch is super easy: leftover pineapple juice from the Pua pops, bubbles and vodka. Optional – a splash of sparkling water for extra fizz. Don’t worry, the kiddos had Hei Hei punch too, minus the booze, of course. It’s the first time I ever ran out of drinks at a party!! This official party drink is here to stay.

All this food and decorating  – so glad we had a Sunday party! Otherwise, Friday night would have been frantic and rushed. I would’ve flipped out a few times and I’d have been fried by the end of Saturday.

With festive friends all around, I even managed to borrow nearly everything we needed. All I had to get was supplies for making Te Fiti, paper supplies and party favors. The best is that I had far more decor than if I had bought everything myself AND I get to return it all at the end. No starting a new storage box for a theme party I’ll never throw again.

One of these days, I’m going to do that thing I keep saying and have a leftovers party. I’ll have seven shamrock napkins, some tropical plates, a couple Olympic flags, an Easter themed tea towel, and about 800 of those weird square spoons I got for the time I did an ice cream bar with toppings.

But I digress…

So party day rolls around – I’m deep in final prep mode when the girls declare they must have party games. Party games? Are you kidding? Maybe another mom perhaps smiled, put down the fruit they were slicing and crafted a beautiful and clever game. Nope. No way! I’ve got lots left to do, so I tagged out and returned to frosting the last cupcakes. I didn’t hear any meltdowns so I figured the girls appealed to their dad to come up with something.

What I discovered after the party is that the girls have reached this magical age where they are actually figuring things out on their own! I had no idea this day was coming, and it is nothing less than miraculous! They came up with the games (Pin the Heart on Te Fiti and Fishing) and gathered/made supplies (Hearts of Te Fiti, fishing rod, etc) with only the slightest bit of help. During the party, the kids even managed the actual game-playing on their own, it was truly remarkable. If this is how it goes, I may entertain the idea of games at future parties!

In the end, the kids had fun, the grownups were relaxed and enjoying themselves. Hei Hei Punch was a wild success. Another kids’ party in the books, and on to the next adventure!