Jim's 30th Birthday Luau

The day for Jim's party arrived and I think it was pretty successful. The final minutes of preparation were a bit of a hurricane (as is to be expected I guess) but there were many hands available to help out and I appreciate every single one!! It was just nice to have an excuse to have people over. I love entertaining and making food and just being together. Jim was a little embarassed to have the attention on him, but he had a good time nonetheless.

We had some nice Hawaiian centerpieces, tiki torches and I found this great 50 foot banner of a sunset. Once evening hit with the torches lit, the sunset and water looked pretty darn real! I think we'll leave it up as long as the wind will allow.

I had read about this game called pineapple bowling and wanted to give it a shot. My mom and I spent a lot of time hollowing out these pineapples from the bottom (while trying to salvage as much edible pineapple for kabobs). Then you use coconuts to bowl over the pineapples. I think it kinda worked. It was good for a laugh anyway. By the end of the evening the coconuts had been cracked open to oblivion.

The food line...

Happy Birthday to you...

This is the Tiki bar before the marachino cherries jar was spilled three times. I don't know what was such bad luck about that jar. So we finally just dumped all the cherries into a dish. It takes time, but I smarten up...

Our small group from church.

Neighbors and friends.

The train crew.

Friends.

Family.

I got so carried away with this Luau theme and it was just so much fun! I can now see why people get into Hawaiian stuff so much. There is something addictive about it. Jim saw how much I was enjoying it and has brought up the idea of going back to Hawaii for our 5th anniversary. So we'll see if we can make that work. YIPPEE!! Who knew that this white girl who doesn't tan or spend much time on the beach would develop such a love for all things Hawaiian.