Ashleys Birthday Luau

Ashley's 4th Birthday party was her best ever! What fun we all had celebrating the life of our little one.

The party took Dave and I about two weekends to prepare. We spent one whole weekend building our beach hut and tiki bar. We really enjoyed this little project and they are items that will remain around our pool for years to come. The tiki bar was a huge hit at the party. My brother and one of my brother in laws were the perfect bar tenders. Great personlaties that made it so much fun. The tiki bar was named Caribbean Breezes and it continued to provide hours of refreshment for the rest of the week for my family. The kids loved taking orders and mixing drinks for everyone. We used our magic bullets and bottles of V8 fusion juice along with some ice and some fresh fruit. Add a little umbrella and lemon or lime wedge and there you have it. Yummy tropical drinks to enjoy around the pool.

We began setting everything in motion for the party early Friday morning. Stocking the fridge at the tiki bar, planting tiki torches and filling with oil, placing tropical plants and banana trees around the pool, building the beach(1000lbs of play sand, a few bags of sea shells, some star fish, shovels and pails, and two amazing palm trees), arranging tables and chairs, throwing out some bamboo beach mats for extra seating, etc, etc.

The menu was awesome! I began marinating steak, chicken and shrimp about 24 hours before party time. Then that afternoon we assembled the kabobs, cut some fresh fruits(melons, kiwis, pineapples, strawberries, grapes, etc.), prepared some corn on the cob and thats about it.

We hosted about 60 guests almost as many adults as kids. Once our guests arrived (some of them had traveled as far as 6 hours that day to be with us) they were greeted at the door with a Hawaiian lei or straw hat. Then they were led out the back patio to the pool to enjoy the festivities. Island music played, the big kahunas were grilling, the kids were swimming or playing on the beach, the bar was open and Ash was taking it all in. We visited and mingled during dinner then the games began.

We started out with two teams of 8 participants and held our very first Tacky Tourist Relays. What fun! Two suit cases filled to the brim with everything you could think of to take along with you on vacation. One suitcase even had an official note from Dave's nemesis the TSA guys at the airport! I haven't laughed so hard in a very long time. The tourists had to dress themselves in every single item found inside of their suitcases, then grab their traveling companion and their suitcases and run to the other end to pass it all off to the next two team mates in line.

The next game on the list was the hula hoop contest. Now this wasn't just a normal hula contest. You see each team had 12 members lined up. The first member in line had to hula one time around, the second two times, the third three times, get the idea? You should have seen some of the "old" timers showing their stuff up against the kids. It was great!

We also held the Aloha Sack races. The only trick to this game was that one lucky participants bag had been opened on the other end so that their feet went all the way through to the ground. Can you believe they still lost the race?

Finally we ended our game playing with a round of Limbo.

My favorite part of the party was watching Ashley Kate play. She looked so amazing! She was happy, feeling great and enjoying herself. I couldn't have asked for anything more than that. I still can't believe she's four years old. She was showered with many blessings. Beautiful gifts, well wishes and so much more. Each and every person who attended has loved her for her lifetime and has prayed for her during her roughest of times. What a blessing it was to have them all at her party. I truly wish you all could have been with us that night.

I know their are details I have left out. So much was happening and so much went into planning the party. As always I am happy to answer your questions and help you with your own luau if I can. Feel free to email me if you'd like. These are just a few of the 250 pictures taken that night. I'm sure I'll be sharing more in the near future. We have some great ones from this week as my family stayed with us to continue the celebration.

Thank you guys for loving Ash and for your sweet birthday wishes. What a joy it is to hear from you all. Can you believe its been four years? What a journey we've taken together. What a journey!