Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Inexpensive and Innovative Island Invitations

Introducing.... Whack-i Wednesday with an interesting twist. Involve or incorporate "i" in as many instances imaginable. Ok... I'm done. That's way too much work.

Today we'll do two things. First, since I happen to be working on Matthew's birthday invitations yesterday and invitation starts with the letter "i", we'll briefly touch on that. Then, we'll stay on his birthday theme and see if we can apply today's Whack on the Side of the Head to planning his party. I love it... built in party consultants.

A little background. My in-laws have a beach house in Key Largo. Each year all the boys in the family plan an annual "Guys Weekend in the Keys." As a side note, I LOVE this idea. As a woman "boy-trapped" in her own home, a guys weekend in the Keys means a week of solitude in Dallas. The rule, however, is you are not invited until you are fully potty trained. Matthew missed it by the skin of his teeth last year, so he has spent the year day dreaming and obsessing over going to Florida. In January he announced that he wanted to spend his birthday in Florida. Our schedules don't allow for a trip in April, so instead the idea for his party is to bring Florida to Matthew. Thus his party will be Florida-beach-themed.

I thought about recreating airplane boarding tickets, but I thought that would escape most of the four year old children invited. Instead, I decided on messages in a bottle. I love mailing irregularly shaped items in the mail - simply because most people don't. From a child's perspective, it's a thrill to get anything in the mail... never mind something 3-D. It also made involving Matthew in the project much easier. All I needed... old water bottles, stickers, sea shells, a little bit of yellow shred, construction paper, and of course - the ever essential - hot glue gun. We wrote out the invitations and then Matthew decorated them with beach-themed stickers. Once done, we rolled up the invitations, put them in the bottles with a little bit of shred and some sea shells, sealed it up with a cork and a hot glue gun, and made cut-out shapes for address labels. One final treatment of stickers on the outside of the bottle and we're off to the post office.

Incidentally... because I like to send 3-D mail, I have been the recipient of some great and interesting mail myself... a coconut from Hawaii, a plastic barrel of fun filled with treats, a American Airlines barf bag, empty but with a handwritten letter, and a painted piece of wood with a letter on the back... to name a few. Try it. See what the whackiest thing is you can send through the mail.

Now onto the business of whacking ourselves on the side of the head. Today's card was picked only because it was the card with the title containing the most "i"s. Imagine You're the Idea. Imagine that you're a parking meter. How does it feel when coins are inserted in you? What is it like when you're "expired." how could you be easier to use? Imagine that you're a box of cereal on a grocery shelf. How can you be more attractive? What can you do to force the grocer to give you more shelf space? How would you feel if you were the idea you're developing?

The idea I'm developing is Matthew's birthday party. I'm hoping by doing this I can make his "trip" to Florida more authentic. How would I feel if I was Florida? What can I do to make party-goers feel like they have left Texas and arrived in the Sunshine State for a couple of hours? If I was Florida, I would be sunny and warm. I would be relaxing with the sound of waves in the background. Oranges would be plentiful, sand would gently move through my toes, and their would be a yummy drink in my hand. Tourists would be enjoying themselves while fishing, swimming, and cruising the ocean on boats. Beaches would be filled with beach umbrellas, suntan lotion, bright beach towels and chairs. Young children would be looking for sea shells or building sand castles; older children would be combing the sand for metal treasures or playing Frisbee; and adults would be sunbathing while reading a book or magazine.

I have to go, Micky... I mean Ricky is calling me. You take a turn. How would you feel if you were Florida?

Signing off until tomorrow when we'll ooze "o" in order to develop an original, or otherwise outrageously obscure and overboard idea...worthy of an ovation!.. OK?






9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does Matthew like Buffett and Rum Runners???
How about a 114 south drive mural made on cardboard acting as the backdrop?

Anonymous said...

Fish cookies, flip flop cookies, sand in the bottle favors, sand box treasure digs, sand castle cake, muscle man/woman picture cutouts(these would be great thank yous), coconut drinks, fish and chips and a fishing game. Just a few ideas in my head. Lots more where those came from. I love party planning! Give me a call if you need the castle cake mold.

Anonymous said...

I was thinking a fun activity would be sand art...I loved that as a kid.
Other ideas: Seashell digging in a sandbox, Everyone (well the kids at least) wears their swimsuit (is it warm enough for that in Dallas?), boats for a boys party would be great too.
Matthew (and Jack and Ricky) are lucky to have you...they'll have parties to remember their entire life.

Cheryl Houston said...

Key West reminds me of palm trees, turtles, crabs, lazy hammocks, lots of sun, humidity, Cuban food, scuba diving, mopeds, lots of alcohol, street fairs and lastly, Hemmingway. What a fun party Matthew is going to have!!!! I love the idea of the picture cut-outs!

Now, I'm slow. Do I understand you correclty? You take that cute little bottle just like it is to the post office; They slap a stamp on it and put it in their delivery bags as is? You can do that? You don't have to box it up or put it in a tube or anything else? That is completely new to me. And cool!

I love those bottles invitations! They are too cute. Great job.

Claudia @ Highlowaha said...

Cheryl, Yes, you can mail all kinds of fun things in the mail. No tube, no box... just as is.

Try it.

Anonymous said...

An activity my boys would like is to decorate a visor or hat. We're big into hats. If I was fortunate to live in a house of girls, we would decorate our own flip-flops.
It sounds like Matthew is going to have a great birthday party.
Most importantly, I think that you deserve a beach getaway during the boys' weekend getaway. Definitely a spa week.

Claudia @ Highlowaha said...

Thanks for the ideas, friends. I will let you know which of the ones posted I had the time, money, and energy to implement. Feel free to keep posting. The party isn't for three weekends.

Anonymous said...

you could fill a small pool with water and have a fishing game. We went to a beach birthday party--they had beach balls with all the kids names, buckets and shovels, etc. It was fun!!!

Claudia @ Highlowaha said...

Anonymous, I like the suggestion of beach balls with the kids names on them. I will steal it.