Will and Poppy's Tropical Pool Party
A Tropical Pool Party for William & Poppy!
Combining parties is a great idea. This is the second combined party I've done for my kids, who are both born in January.
I chose to do a Pool Party theme, originally, because it's summer and we have a backyard pool.
We ended up hosting the event from our local town pool. We had a guest list of around 50, and decided our home wouldn't cut it.
A pool party is so much fun for the kids, it's a unisex theme, and it also means you don't have to think of many games and entertainment as the swimming itself entertains the kids!
Decorations and Styling
Our themed invitations were made by Print and Party. I loved Anna's work in meeting my brief. She did some coordinating labels and stickers too!
We had to put up a marquee as it did rain for a little while during the party, so that became the base for the decorations.
I styled one large table, decorating it with a Flamingo Swaddle Blanket from Bondi Beach Baby, water bottles with labels from Print and Party and tropical themed decorations Lark Store, as well as all the food.
I had a smaller, child sized table, covered in fairy bread, party hats and fun straws for the kids to choose for their drinks. The kids loved this, and demolished the fairy bread in record time!
I scattered some large, round beach towels around too, for kids to sit on, and one became the dumping ground for piles of gifts and presents!
We had some large balloons for impact + summer themed decorations like the ice cream piñata, bunting and honeycomb decorations hanging around in the marquee.
Poppy and I also wore matching TopKnot Girl summer-themed Headbands!
Party Food
We had a BBQ for the main, filling food. Traditional Aussie sausages in bread with tomato sauce - yum!
My Mother-in-law made the most delicious chocolate crackles and peppermint slice, my Mum provided some individual popcorn packets, I cut up two large halves of watermelon, my Sister made some fairy bread, I bought chips, pineapple lollies and drinks and I made a coconut layer cake, iced and decorated with pineapple lollies!
The cake cost me less than $18 to make! I was stoked! I've a gorgeous friend, Jess, over at Fika for Days, who would have made the cake, however wasn't able to (due to an amazing photo shoot she was involved in that week!) but she was kind enough to give me some great pointers - especially with the icing!
I made two double-batch cakes, one tinted pink, and the other yellow. I replaced the regular milk the recipe asked for, with coconut milk, to add a tropical flavour. Once cooled I put the cakes into the fridge and chilled them, before cutting each cake into two.
I iced them with buttercream, and stacked them in alternating colours. I did a "crumb coat" of icing to seal in the crumbs and put it back in the fridge to set. I then added the final icing layer, tinting half of my remaining icing mixture with a drop of yellow. I added that at the bottom and the creamy coloured icing at the top, and just used a pallet knife to go around "blending" it. I used some tutorials off Pinterest to help with this.
Party Favors
I made up some favour packs for each child. I used a plastic beach spade, filling the spade part with personalised handmade play dough tubs from Dough 4 Fun, and some bubbles and noise makers from Kmart. We finished the bags with personalised lolly pops from Print and Party and wrapped them in cello bags, secured with washi tape.
Games
We played "cac-toss" with an inflatable cactus hat from Lark, that has rings you have to throw onto the arms of the cactus, as well as a scavenger hunt for small water guns (found at Kmart) that the kids then used in the pool to squirt each other!
Both kids had a ball! I barely saw them all day and had to call them to do the cake as people were ready to go!
We had a fab time, they really enjoyed hanging out with their friends and playing in the water!
My favourite part was watching them have fun together with all their friends + sitting down later for a cuppa and piece of leftover cake!
I hope you've enjoyed this post! xx Holly
Suppliers:
TopKnot Girl - Summer themed Headwear
Print and Party - Invites, Stickers, Labels, Lolly Pops
Dough 4 Fun - Play Dough Favour Tubs
Lark Store - Balloons + Assorted Decorations
Bondi Beach Baby - Flamingo Swaddle
Kmart - Favour Fillers
Coles - Plates, Serviettes, Food Supplies