Sunday, July 24, 2011

Allie’s 1st LUAU!

We celebrated Allie’s first birthday yesterday with some of our dearest friends and neighbors from the Cedar-Ridge-Sac! We do so much together here in this part of our neighborhood and since they all have been a big part in Allie’s growing up, we decided to keep it a small and “close to home” celebration with them, the grandparents, and of course Auntie Laura.

allie's luau

Friday was filled with all sorts of preparation from cleaning the house and garage, to decorating, to getting a head-start on the food. But… let me tell ya! It’s hard to get ready for such a big event AND keep both kids occupied. At one point in time I had to look around the house for Allie because it was much too quiet. She had crawled behind the couch, climbed into her old bumbo seat, and was munching on some cranberries (and almonds… uh oh!) that she found stashed in my work bag. I hadn’t noticed that she was even aware of the ‘behind the couch clutter!’

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While cleaning out the garage we found Nana’s johnny-jump-up that kept Allie occupied all of 5min before she realized she couldn’t touch anything in the pantry.

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But… it was a productive day: we got the house cleaned, the garage organized, made 4 batches of potato-mac salad, baked 72 coconut cream cupcakes, roasted 16lbs of pork butt, and cooked up some delicious haupia.

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Saturday morning we woke up early to shred the pig and decorate.

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And just before the party started we finished the last minute food preparations including our teriyaki chicken in a home-made teriyaki sauce. We had such a delicious spread: rice, potato-mac salad, pineapple, haupia, teriyaki chicken and kalua pig.

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Pretty Hawaiian princess #1!

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Messy Hawaiian Princess #2!

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Malia chose these awesome party glasses from the dollar store!

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The kiddos stayed busy with this water table. We bought Allie the same exact one for her birthday and are just waiting for it to arrive!

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Allie was so good! You know how it is… most times the kids choose the day of their birthday to mess with their nap schedule. But not Al! We were able to hold her off for a late nap and because we didn’t stop her from roaming around and getting dirty, she was super happy. But really Allie? Just learn to walk!

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Happy Mommy and Daddy!

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Look at those rolls!

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Christa, Amy, Jenny, Myself, Laura, & Charity… all looking like beautiful Hawaiian ladies!

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We tried to add all the kids… you get what you get!

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Happy Birthday Allie girl!

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Getting ready for song and cake!

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Proud parents.

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“Happy Birthday to Allie…”

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“… Happy Birthday to YOU!”

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Going in for her first bite NO hands!

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Then she just ate it up! So opposite of Malia who barely touched her birthday cake. It’s fun to look back and compare their big day!

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Opening presents!

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Lovin’ us some Auntie Laura!

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Allie sandwich!

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And… this is why we don’t have a new family picture hanging on the wall yet.

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The girls on the block + 1: Allie, Malia, Emersyn, Ava, Laelle and Hadley!

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Big Sister, Little Sister

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During second dinner (we had SOOO much food!) Malia helped herself to the entire container of rice.

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Must have been some good stuff!

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We ended the evening with a relaxing fire pit, holding off the inevitable cleaning after a fun night’s party!

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Thanks to our wonderful family and friends! We LOVE you all!

2 comments:

Jeralyn said...

Happy birthday to Allie!! I especially like the family picture :) I have so many pictures just like that! And the no-hands cupcake pictures... I can totally see Grant doing something like that. It's fun to watch our kids grow up so close in age! Anywho, looks like you guys had lots of fun. I can't believe Allie is already one!

MaurBen said...

Looks like a lot of fun! Your girls are so stinkin' cute! Happy Birthday Allie! Hopefully we get to see you guys soon! :)