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Sadly, summer is drawing to a close. This is particularly sad for those of us who live in South Canada and face eight months of winter ahead, but it is also cause to celebrate. If you are looking to soak up the last summer days, we’ve got the perfect way to find happiness right where you are. We recently used the amazing Entertaining with Disney book to host a Motunui Island Summer BBQ inspired by Moana. We’ve shared this book before with our Frozen Brunch, but know that it is amazing. It comes complete with recipes, decor templates and even walks you through a timeline to prepare your event. We wanted to share the details with you of how we brought this event to life!

As directed by the book, we started by collecting the items we needed for decor. The Kakamora cups are the star of this show, in my opinion, and I ordered these coconut cups from Amazon to create them. We used acrylic paint to paint the faces on and had a good laugh at our artistic abilities. I love this palm leaf tablecloth – it is machine washable and has a cute scallop trim. Will definitely use it again!

For our place settings, we ordered these palm leaves and woven placemats, along with these cute plastic plates from Target – perfect for patio meals in the summer and/or for toddlers. We added our own floral arrangement (designed by Allison – isn’t she talented?) and a few citronella candles because #mosquitoes.

As you know, we are always here for the food and this menu did not disappoint! We used these gold sprinkles to create Tamatoa’s Shiny Pineapple Rings. The menu also included Motunui Sliders, Chef Tui’s Classic Chicken Kebabs and Heihei’s Cheese and Melon Bites. The sliders were our favorite – we changed the recipe just a bit and used a mango salsa instead of a pineapple ring. We also went a little off script with Te Fiti’s Tropical Punch and made our own recipe for Te Fiti’s Champagne Punch.

Te Fiti’s Champagne Punch

Ingredients

1 cup frozen pineapple
1/2 cup lime juice
1/2 cup Midori Melon Liqueur
1 bottle of champagne
24 oz. Sprite or club soda
Blueberries (for garnish)
Mint spring (for garnish)
Lime slices (for garnish)

Add all ingredients to pitcher and finish with garnish. Stir and enjoy!

We had such a great time celebrating the end of summer Motunui style – how do you celebrate summer? Tell us in the comments!