Micki throws a Dora Luau/Beach Party and lives to tell the tale.

Monday is Claire's birthday, but today we had her party. She loves all things Dora, so a Dora birthday party it was! We decided it would be a Dora Beach Party/Luau because those were the decorations that were plentiful and cheap.

I got little to no sleep this week leading up to the party. It was a lot of work and Trent is away to Kenya for work. It has rained everyday this week leading up to the party. Today arrived warm and sunny. I was so thankful as I wasn't sure how to fit 10 girls, their parents and the two workmen working on our bathroom all into our house. Oh, didn't I mention we were having one of our bathrooms worked on? Don't worry, it worked out. It turns out that one bathroom was plenty.
Here's Kate helping me out. While I was getting the decorations put up this morning, she decided to throw our shoes and boots outside. Wasn't that so kind of her? Despite her help, I got almost everything done. A few parents stayed to help and the party was ready to begin!

Of course we had to go on an adventure to find Dora. Here's our Map. We had to find the sandbox, then the ocean, and then the tree. I gave each girl a purple backpack with items inside that would help them with our adventure. First we looked through binoculars to find the sandbox.

When we got to the sandbox we needed to find a magic shell to show to the mermaids in the ocean. Here's our resident toad. He is the keeper of the shells. The girls had little pails and shovels in their backpacks to retrieve their shells.

As we went on our way to the ocean we came across Swiper the fox! He wanted to take our magic seashells, but of course we said, "Swiper, no swiping!" He's looking a bit runny because we accidentally squirted him with the hose. I thought I would cry when that happened. All that hard work ruined so quickly. The girls didn't notice. On to the ocean!

Here is the keeper of the ocean. She and her mermaid friends are keeping watch over a secret treasure box!

Oooh it's dark in the ocean! It's a good thing we had flashlights in our backpacks!

We found the golden treasure box and inside were bracelets like Dora's!

We then had to follow the stars to the tree. (Sorry, no pictures. Just imagine blue shiny stars taped to the side of our house leading the way from the backyard to the front yard.)


Surprise! There was Dora waiting to give us a surprise. I left the pinata sign attached in case anyone thought it was the real Dora. Everyone grabbed a string and pulled! Dora was hiding all sorts of lollipops, laffy taffies and smarties!

Here's Claire with her backpack. She's done with the adventure.

She's ready to swim now!


We ate taquitos, pizza, little chimichangas, watermelon, grapes, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and M&M's. Those are Dora's favorites right?

Here's Claire not blowing out her birthday candles. Everyone else did it for her!

Since this was a Dora Luau/Beach Party we needed a monkey and a fun inflatable palm tree that doubled as an ice and drink holder.

Claire finished off the party by opening up her presents. What you don't see is 9 other little girls trying to help her rip the paper off!

All in all, the party was a success. I did learn a few things though. After all that hard work and planning the thing the girls loved the most was the pool. All through our "Adventure" they kept saying, "When can we go in the pool?" All I really needed to do is fill up that pool, feed them cupcakes and they would have been happy! I also put too many things in their backpacks and made our adventure a little too complex. They were juggling all the things they needed to use and it got a bit crazy. Still everyone had a good time and I'm glad we did it! Adios!