Pool party anyone?

The latest Mater Prize Home is made for entertaining! With a kitchen that includes a butler’s pantry, an alfresco dining area with built in BBQ, plus a deck on the canal—all your guests need to do is decide whether to take a dip in the pool or relax by the water.

With entertaining in mind, it’s the perfect pad for a pool party! With the home being located in the tropical paradise of the Gold Coast—why not go with a tropical pool party theme!

Party under the sun to under the stars with these handy hints to help you throw a fabulous pool soiree:

Invites

Step one; invite your friends! Maybe you’ll simply create a Facebook event and invite your guests that way? Perhaps you’ll send an email? But if you want to go old-school and send an invitation in the post—then there are some fun invites you can create!

Keep the tropical theme in mind as you design and create your one of a kind invitations. For some inspiration, check out some ideas on Pinterest.

Paper lanterns and tiki torches

Dial up the decorations with some bright paper lanterns. Bursts of colour are key—be sure to use different sized lanterns that hang at different heights to give contrast to your theming.

Grab some garlands and line your fences and tables. Mix it up with florals and stripes!

Tiki torches are the final touches to your decorations—as the sun sets on your party, keep it going by adding mood lighting with tiki torches. This will keep your guests in full party swing.

Introduce these decorations from the front to the back – ensuring your party gets started from the minute your guests arrive.

Decorate your pool

During the day, brighten up your pool and decorate it by letting bright coloured balloons gently rest on the water. Add some plastic flowers with the stem cut off to add to the ambience. As the sun falls, replace with floating lanterns—there are lots of lanterns on the market in different styles and colours; and they vary between using tea light candles and LED lighting.

Selfie station

Set up a tropical themed selfie-station for your guests to make memories caught on camera. Designate an area—throw up a bright or tropical patterned sheet against a wall and pop up some of your decorations too. Then have some props on hand; such as floaties, beach balls, leis, bright & oversized plastic sunnies, a few different styles of hats and throw in a ukulele!

Why not create your own #hashtag for your guests to use on their social media platforms too!

Drinks

Set up drink stations using oversized galvanised buckets decorated in your tropical theme, filled with bottles of your favourite beverages on ice.

Fill jugs with tropical drinks and make sure you have plenty of party glasses, paper straws, drink-umbrellas and sides of fruit at the ready. Here are some crowd pleasers to try:

Pine Colada: combine pineapple juice, cream of coconut and crushed ice in a blender; for extra fun, serve in a hollowed pineapple half!

Sunset Beach: shake equal amounts of orange juice, pineapple juice, cranberry juice with ice and serve.

Eye of the Hurricane: blend passion fruit nectar, lime juice and club soda and serve over ice.

Mango Daiquiri: throw ripe mango, pineapple juice, lime juice, sugar and ice cubes into a blender and slowly blend until smooth.

Snow cones anyone? Simply crush ice in a blender until fine, then scoop into cups and pour over your favourite flavour of cordial or syrup! For an extra special treat, try finishing it off with a drizzle of sweetened condensed milk!

Fun it up! Instead of cups and glasses, why not grab some coconuts for your guests to be able to self-serve their drinks in this fun alternative.

And always have water at the ready for your guests to stay hydrated throughout the party.

Eats

In keeping with the tropical pool party theme, provide a summer feast full of flavours and colour!

You’ll have your very own built in BBQ if you win the current Mater Prize Home, so throw the usual such as snags and steak, on the barbie. But get creative and add things like prawn skewers (be inspired and add some Thai-spices); cook up some fish and create mini fish tacos with cabbage, lime and hot sauce; and try some pineapple and mozzarella bites skewered on a rosemary stick also thrown on the barbie!

Stuff some tomatoes with goat’s cheese; a salad made from carrots, pineapple, cabbage and almonds; plus some sweet potato mash with lime and toasted coconut! And lastly, Jamaican rice made with kidney beans, scallions, peas and coconut milk.

Make sides fun! Cut out a pineapple and fill it with a salsa made from cilantro, jalapeno, red peppers and red onions and mix it all together with fresh lime juice and olive oil. And don’t forget the guacamole!

For dessert, thread rounds of fruits such as mango, strawberries, kiwifruit and pineapple on skewers. This easy to make, easy to eat dish is sure to be a crowd pleaser!

And for something a little naughtier, indulge in some ice cream waffle sandwiches!

Pool party at 57 Cova Boulevard!

If you are the lucky winner of our current Mater Prize Home lottery No. 271 on Hope Island, it could you throwing a pool party to celebrate the glorious win!

Imagine what owning this home would mean for you! When will you throw your first pool party?

Grab your tickets today and you could be setting the date soon!

And if you want to get a feel for what could be yours, be sure to the visit the home—open daily until Wednesday 28 June 2017.