REAL PARTIES: Retro Surfer Birthday

This fabulous Retro Surfer Birthday Party sent in by Kate from Australia-based I Love Parties is full of so many creative details!

As a SoCal girl myself, the surfing/beach theme immediately caught my eye… but who wouldn’t appreciate ultra-clever ideas like surfboard-shaped sandwiches, “Shark” and “Sand” cupcakes, retro tin Kombi vans, homemade wooden surf signs and “Coconut Bowling“?! Such a perfect theme for summer parties too…

Read on for LOTS more pics and all the fun details, as told by Kate…

*****

“We recently held our much anticipated I LOVE PARTIES RETRO SURF 2ND BIRTHDAY PARTY, and I am pleased to say it was a very big success! Beautiful weather and lots of fun. {Photos are from the wonderful Jill at Shutterbubs.com.}

FAVOR AND CAKE TABLE
For the guest favors, we set up a table where everyone could fill their own gift bag with surf and beach-themed accessories.

The accessories included cool black shades, custom coloring books (available from I Love Parties) with crayons, surf tattoos, “Surf Screen” (with custom labels) – and personalized surf wax from Cakes Around Town. We also set out hibiscus lollipops, pineapples jellies, bananas, and Bounty coconut chocolate bars.

Tall glass vases were filled with blue jelly beans, gummy milk bottles, and large faux banana leaves, and the homemade banana cake was decorated with an Edible Surfboard Decoration purchased from Cakes Around Town.

I also framed some pictures of the Birthday boy Photoshopped onto old surf magazine covers and displayed them alongside his surf trophies.

Handmade Retro Surf Favor Bags from I Love Parties:

THE FOOD TABLE
The cookies and cupcakes were created by the AMAZING Libby at Polka Dot Cookies. There were “Shark” and “Sand” designs, and I decorated the “Sand” cupcakes with handmade “No Surfcraft” signs and blue flags.

The fabulous sugar cookies were designed to look like colorful surfboards and waves!

Cool Kombi vans (available from I Love Parties) were the perfect decorative accent for the table!

I used surfboard-shaped cookie cutters to cut “surfboard sandwiches” and decorated them with homemade flags. We also served jelly oranges, fruit skewers, mini hamburgers, chicken and pineapple skewers, potato salad and mini hot dogs.

I was so in love with the honeycomb pineapple decorations – they were huge and looked fantastic!

The Sunset Bar
Drinks were given fun, themed names and included jugs of lime cordial (“Green Room Juice“), pineapple juice (“Mellow Yellow“), orange juice (“Sunny Delight“) and blue powerade (“Blue Hawaii“). The hula girl straws were a big hit!

Custom surf shack signs were made from fence paling and paint:

GAMES

Fish Out of Water
For this activity, we cut fish shapes from colored cardboard and attached each one to a large paper clip. A magnet (available at most hardware stores) was attached to a broom handle with a string to create the “fishing rod” for the cardboard fish.

Coconut Bowling
This was VERY cute! I bought two real coconuts and made “palm tree” bowling pins using colored card stock attached to empty juice bottles. I recommend playing this one on the grass because the coconuts can crack on a hard surface.”

*****

Thanks again to Kate for the fabulous party inspiration!