So its been a few years since Ari's Frozen Party and she really loves Disney's Moana so we decided to have a little fun this year for her 7th birthday.

It all started with an oar...

I seriously love this oar and Ari has so much fun acting out all the poses like Moana. Its so realistic that my husband coming home late from work thought I had bought a real oar -perhaps taking the party planning just a little too far!

So the oar hooked me, I was all in for the Moana theme. 

I divided the party up into all the important components:

• Costume  
• Activities & take home items
• Decorations
• Food 

Here is where we ended up...

Costume

Our girl needed to be dressed in style and after much research into making her outfit my husband stepped in and got her the official Disney costume complete with necklace. Big sigh of relief I was not at all sure I could pull it off. All I had to do was add the oar and curl her hair.

Activities and take home items

Keeping nine energetic 4 to 8 year old girls entertained is pretty easy but when some of them don't know anyone but the birthday girl it becomes important that at least some of the activities be organised to bring everyone together. 

So taking inspiration from the movie I planned some super fun activities for everyone to enjoy. 

Sail decorating and sailing

This activity took some preparation ahead of time as I wanted to avoid using glue on the day and I wanted the girls to be able to do the project without too much help. That being the case I had pre-made the wooden parts of the boats, the sails and the Heart of Te Fiti style swirl for stamping. I also had a selection of fabric pens and ribbons for extra decorations and of course a completed boat for them to replicate.

I must admit the fun of decorating eclipsed the fun of actually sailing the boats. 

Anklets

Next up we had anklet decorating.

Like with the boats I wanted this activity to be fun and easy so I made up all the anklet components ahead of time, leaving the girls to assemble them on the day and wear them.

Kakamora face drawing

My affection for cute things and for plushies in particular almost rivals my chocolate addiction so I was determined to make plushie versions of the completely adorable kakamora's and have the girls decorate them with faces.

By this stage the party was fast approaching so time for crafting the kakamora inspired balls was also running low. Something had to go and that was limbs! Here is how they looked when done...

This was the girls' favourite activity at the party and these little guys have been taken into their new homes with much love, accompanying the girls in various activities including car trips and in my case acting as a head rest on the couch while I watch TV.

Oar pencil toppers

Ari loves her full size oar so much I wanted each of the girls to have an oar momento from the party. I decided to make each of them a pencil topper and placed them on real woodgrain pencils.

Its amazing how much pleasure these simple pencil toppers bring to the children and that they have made homework time much more appealing...in our house at least.

Decorations

I had such great plans and even a pinterest board devoted to researching Moana decorations but time was against me so it was a very pared down version of my vision that was created for the day.

My avenue of leaves...

These were made with fabric tops and green streamers for the stems. It was so fun walking under them with the streamers fluttering as you go by and despite not being as grand as I imagined they did make a lovely entrance from the front door into the party space.

We also had the official Moana poster and some small posters featuring some of Maui's tattoos and movie quotes.

Food

It was an afternoon party so we wanted to keep the food pretty minimal while loosely in theme. 

I divided the table up into zones with Sea (blue platter and bowls), Sand (creamy coloured bowls) and Land (green platters). Ari's figurines were also scattered amongst the food to make the table a little more festive.

We served fruit sticks, sailboat jellies inspired by The Jersey Momma, party sausages, popcorn, frozen banana and chocolate popsicles (thanks to Disney Channels BF Chefs for the recipe), crabby croissants inspired by Catchmyparty and pineapple doughnuts from instagram.

The cake, so funny but by this stage of the party the mums of Ari's friends were convinced I was some sort of party throwing hero (despite my protestations). Now my family and friends know I am not a foodie. I reserve all my measuring, cutting and making for the sewing room so there was no way I would be making a cake. Needless to say the party hero illusion was shattered when one of the little girls in attendance ran up to her mum yelling "she bought the cake".

Ari loves gelato so we purchased a layered chocolate and toasted coconut gelato cake which was delicious (also GF, egg free and nut free for the various food allergies in attendance) and a great way to bring the party to a close.

Sorry everyone was too bust eating gelato before it melted on this steamy hot afternoon to get a photo so we will end with the birthday girl...