Events

A Moana Birthday Party

Moana quickly became one of my sons favorite movies when it came out. I can’t tell you how many times we have watched it!

With all of the bright colors, fun songs and adventure – how could anyone not love this movie?!

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It also makes for a great birthday party theme!

Luckily, you can find luau inspired decorations just about anywhere, making this party theme a really easy option.

You can shop some of the items that I used for this party by clicking on the links throughout the post or scrolling to the bottom of the page!

As with most parties that I put together, I always go through everything that I already have (including toys) first and then pick up whatever other decorations are needed.

Although ours was indoors due to the time of year, this theme would also make for a really great summer party by the pool too!

The Decorations

For the tables I used tropical garland and wooden vases as the centerpieces. The vases contained greenery and faux orchid stems.

At each place setting, I used simple pink and white paper plates along with coconut cup.

I love these pineapple favor boxes because they fit perfectly with the theme! Each one was placed at the table settings to make the table more exciting.

These crowns are a great way to introduce guests to the party.

These wooden crates, turned upside down and draped fish net adds to the theme perfectly!

The Pua, Maui, Maui’s Hook and Hei Hei toys we items that we already had and helped with the settings!

I used a tropical balloon garland and added tropical flower paper garland to it.

The Food

Chicken teriyaki rice bowls are the perfect option. These allow guests to make theirs exactly how they would like – they can choose which vegetables to put in and what toppings they would like.

There are so many variations of this dish – you could make them with beef, chicken, shrimp or any other protein that holds up well to grilling.

For vegetables you can use peppers, onions, broccoli, snow peas and even pineapple! To top it all off, have teriyaki sauce, spicy mayo and toasted sesame seeds available.

If you are feeling extra motivated, you could hollow out pineapples and use each half or quarter as the serving dish for this meal.

Click here for my recipe for Chicken Teriyaki Bowls.

I always like to have fresh fruit at every party. A tropical fruit platter consisting of pineapple, coconut, mango, star fruit, and passion fruit goes perfectly with the theme.

If you have kids that are picky eaters, you could add watermelon, bananas, strawberries or any other fruit that most kids like.

For a refreshing, tropical drink to serve, these Piña Colada Spritzers are perfect for both kids and adults! Simply modify the recipe to either include rum for adults or omit for kids. It’s that classic Piña Colada flavor of coconut and pineapple but with a light and refreshing twist of lime club soda.

Click here for my Piña Colada Spritzer recipe.

The Cake

The cake was funfetti with vanilla buttercream layered throughout. It was delicious!

It was made by Casey Cakes. If you are in the Northport, New York region I would highly recommend checking out her work!

The Activities

A make your own Heart of Te Fiti project is simple. I used green glass beads (you could use blue as well) and metallic silver markers. Just make sure that you purchase markers that will work on glass. I’ve also seen these made with glow in the dark markers!

I kept it really simply with these and just used the marker but you could always make these a little more exciting and use glitter pens, glitter, or any other sparkly items that will adhere to the glass beads.

These are a fun little art project for the kids to add to their goodie bags.

Another great Moana inspired activity is a kinetic sand station. Especially if you are having the party indoors, kinetic sand creates less of a mess compared to using regular sand.

For this I used three pounds of kinetic sand and seashells that we had from various vacations. This is only a small amount of sand (allowing around 2 – 3 kids to play with this at a time) so I would suggest purchasing more sand if you are wanting more kids to play all at once.

This is a great sensory activity for little ones.

I bought this palm tree piñata and removed the small flowers that were on the base of it. Piñatas are a bit of nostalgia for me as we always had them at our birthday parties growing up!

Kids always love hitting a piñata around or even just pulling the pull strings.

The Favors

I always like to make sure to have some useful goodies in the gift bags. They are a great way to show your appreciation for all the guests coming out to celebrate the special day.

For this party, the cute pineapple gift boxes consisted of sun glasses, kinetic sand, ring pop (Tamatoa treasures!) and a snack. All of the kids each had a tropical lei on their chair too!