Luau 2015

I don't know what it was about this year's luau...but it was my favorite so far.  I think it was the most relaxed I've ever been there, and that happened for no other reason other than me making a vow at the start of the party to actually make it a point to relax.  I even had some drinks!  I ate a full plate of food!  I felt like I got to talk to nearly everyone at the party, even if it was just briefly!  I even told Brian at the end of the night to stop cleaning up and relax! (Ok, that might have been the mai tais talking, but whatever)

 

 

 

 

It's always great to see so many of our family and friends, and we were lucky this year that not only were both sets of grandparents able to join us, but our besties from Virginia and Brian's aunt and uncle from New Jersey were here, too!

So much handsome in one picture.

 

 

 

 

 

Our families have grown and changed so much over the years, but our friendship has remained the same...we are so lucky to have Melissa, Dennis, Ben and Parker in our lives!  And I mean, could the boys be any cuter??

And a big thank you as always to our families for all of their help with the luau, we could never pull it off without them!!!  (note to self: have the grandmas set the food out before serving them drinks... #TheSternosAreLitAndSoAreTheGrandmas)

There were kids EVERYWHERE and I was so impressed that I didn't hear any squabbling or fighting the entire night...so they were either all playing angelically with each other, or they at least weren't fighting loudly enough to get my attention.  I'll take either one!

Gracie, on the other hand, was less than impressed with one thing at the luau....last year after Halloween, I found a little "luau dog" costume 90% off at Target.  90% off friends!  They were practically giving it away, how could I not??  She kept it on for about 10 minutes before looking so ashamed that I took it off.

"I can't believe this is my life right now"

Brian opened up the bar for happy hour per usual and the drinks were the best ever...

GG, Nana, Aunt Laureen, Uncle Phil

 

Dennis and PopPop

 

 

He wrapped up happy hour a bit earlier than usual so that they could start a game of Tiki Ball. What's tiki ball, you ask?  Well, I'm still not sure and I got talked into playing it!  All I know is there were old tiki torch sticks used as bats, a whole lot of yelling, and kids running everywhere.  Oh, and I managed to not break a leg running the bases, so WIN!

 

 

A great party, made even better by the fact that Melissa and family were spending the night at our house, and the kids were super excited for a sleepover and to play together again in the morning :)

 

Gracie spent much of the next day in recovery mode and is hoping that next year does not involve a grass skirt for her.

Thanks again to everyone who came!! 

8th Annual Luau!

Aloha! 

We had a first at the luau this year....not necessarily a good first, but a first nonetheless.  IT RAINED.  I was hoping I would never have to say those words in a recap post about the luau.  Thankfully, it held off until around 7 (the party started at 4) so everyone had already had a chance to get some drinks and eat.  When the party moved inside, it was mostly parents piled in the bar area and kids taking over the playroom and Jake's bedroom :)  Both of those rooms looked like Toys R Us had exploded the next morning, but it was kind of a good thing because it forced me to go through everything, sort it all back out and even box up some older toys that the kids don't play with anymore (shhh....don't tell them I did that!)

A huge thank you to everyone who came out for the party, it was a blast as always!  And thanks to our parents as well, without them, we would lose our minds trying to get everything ready then clean it all up the next day.

Without further adieu, the party pics!

My new favorite decorations, pink flamingo friends I picked up last year when a store was going out of business!

 

Some festive family shots:

Later in the evening, Liam got ready for college practiced his dance moves by hopping up on the bar.

 

That's a wrap for this year!

Mandatory slow down.

While I don't consider our family to necessarily be super busy people, it feels like we always have something.  Some of those things are necessities (always trying to catch up on laundry, housework, etc. on the weekends) and some are voluntary (kids activities, birthday parties, getting together with friends)  It's a catch 22 for us....we really enjoy doing all of that kind of fun stuff, but sometimes we just look at each other after collapsing on the couch on Sunday and say "where did our weekend go??" when it felt like all we did was run from one thing to the next.

Summer especially tends to feel like this (I'm not sure who invented the phrase "the lazy days of summer"....probably the same person who invented the phrase "sleeps like a baby"...lies all lies)  Summer time is great, but it also brings weddings, showers, parties, vacation, and of course, yard work. Sometimes I feel just about as tired as these two look after a long day at summer camp:

 

Unfortunately, we've had 2 things happen that have kind of caused a mandatory slow down for all of us.  First, Brian found out he tore his rotator cuff and will be having surgery next month.  It's a total bummer for him, especially since he has a hard time not doing things like obsessively mowing neat lines into our yard with the mower and spreading mulch to perfection.  We quickly realized that we would need to majorly lower our standards this year and do the bare minimum in terms of outside landscaping.

Then a few weeks ago, I found out I had pneumonia and I've basically been trying to get over it ever since.  Getting old is HARD, my friends, this thing has been kicking my butt.  It's been over 3 weeks now and while I had a brief period of feeling better last week and returned to all of my normal activities, I was paying for that choice over the weekend and started to feel bad again.

So because of these things combined, we haven't done a lot of the stuff we normally do in the summer. We haven't gone to "big" pool (as the kids say--aka, the community pool), we haven't gone to the zoo a bunch of times, we haven't done a backyard camp out with the kids as we were hoping to do, our flowers are half dead, our bushes are overgrown, and there are so many handprints all over the glass doors and windows of our house it looks like someone was trying to escape out of the house in a frantic manner.  Let's not even discuss the fact that there is still a fallen tree taking up a whole side of my yard as well.

I had a brief panic attack last week when I realized that our annual luau party is just around the corner, and that the thought of decorating, cleaning and making a ton of stuff was enough to make me want to curl up and take a nap.  So I decided that the party will go on without quite as much effort.  I'm not going to spend hours the day before cleaning (only to have everyone in the house the next day anyway, I'm not actually sure why I ever bothered to clean in previous years!), I'm going to order some of the food, and I'll put up the decorations that are easy to do and require the least amount of tear-down/clean-up effort.

And you know what?  I don't think that anyone really cares about these things at the end of the day.  The kids aren't asking to go to the zoo.  They have mentioned once or twice wanting to go to the big pool, but are also perfectly content with the blow up pool in our backyard.  No one (but me) cares that our flowers are wilted, or that our mulch sat in the driveway for over a month before we finally broke down and paid a neighborhood kid to finish spreading it, since neither one of us were in any shape to be doing so.  No one is going to care that I don't have a thousand luau decorations up or that my house isn't clean for the day of the party.

We haven't committed to a bunch of things, and we are doing the bare minimum around the house....it was kind of a mandatory thing this year, but maybe we're on to something for the future.
Brian and I said going into this new year that we wanted our mantra to be simplify, simplify, simplify.  Maybe this is the universe's way of making sure we do just that.

So how about you?  Do you feel like you get to embrace the lazy days of summer, or are you too busy to do that?  

image courtesy of divaaniblogit.fi

Let's Luau!!

This was our 7th Annual Luau, and it was another success! I shouldn't even post this for fear of jinxing, but we have yet to have a rainy day for the luau.  There have been a few times that it has rained in the morning, or even sprinkled or clouded over just before the party, but the party itself has always been clear.  This year was nice because it wasn't sweltering hot or humid, as it's been in the past.  It was a nice change. 

As always, some decor and food pictures!!

We were lucky this year that Aunt Amy was able to join us from Colorado!!

We then tried to get some family pictures before the madness of the party ensued, we didn't get too many.   One of these years, I'm going to hire a photographer! :)  I never get as many pictures as I'd like once people start arriving.

How obsessed are you with this hat?  Because I'm pretty obsessed.

Until next year, party-goers!