Hawaiian Birthday Inspiration

A child’s first birthday is always special, especially the first child! When Hana turned one in 2016 we had a nice Hawaiian themes birthday in our garden. She wasn’t in school at the time, so we wanted to keep it simple, my friends were still in town (thanks for all ditching me and relocating to Dubai by the way), and of course cousins and family members gathered around for the celebration.

It was May and the weather was just right for a tropical themed birthday, and I wanted to take pride in putting together as many items as possible from scratch. I’ve learned a lot after that first birthday, but that’s a story for another day.

The main attraction is always the cake, I mean who doesn’t like a good cake that looks good from the inside out? The struggle though, is what to serve with it, and how do you stick to the theme you have in mind? Here is how it went:

For those with a sweet tooth we served cookies. Called them ‘Sugar Shacks’ and they were served in various shapes, including flipflops, flowers, and luau hula skirts.

Sandwiches were served in three forms, buns (Lava Rocks) and in croissants (Crabwiches), and finally my personal favorite toast cut into star shapes (Star fish). Of course you cannot forget about a variety of salads which are crowd pleasers among the older generation, we served potato salad, tabouleh, and Sweet and Sour lentils with pasta ‘horaa osbao‘ (Surf Turf Salads).

 

 

Finally, we served donuts that we called ‘life savers’ cake pops that we called beach balls, and mom was kind enough to make a fruit salad and serve it inside carved pineapples, which we called fruit gems.

Have you done a Hawaiian birthday for one of your kids? Share with us in the comments below.