Gâteau Michelle

Well, it was 9 years ago today that my fabulous son came into this world. He is a wonderful child that deserves a wonderful party, and this year was no exception. This year, the theme was Luau complete with the ocean (local swimming pool that we rented) pineapple, and a roast pig (the birthday cake). Chase had 40 or so of his closest friends in attendance and a great time was had by all!

We began by greeting everyone with leis. Let me tell you about those leis. My husband is a genius!!! I failed to by boxes of leis this summer when all the party stores had them relatively cheap. Well, in the winter, you can only by the leis individually, which, when there are 40-50 kids invited, can be expensive. As we were wandering aimlessly through the party store, Robert had a flash of brilliance. The store had doorway flower curtains made out of the same flowers as the leis for sale and he thought that it would be really easy to take them apart and make them into leis. Since the leis themselves were $1.50 each and the curtains were $4.99, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that this would be more cost effective. We were able to get about 25 leis out of each curtain and had more than enough for our guests. Plus, it was very easy to do and we made them while watching tv at night. Even Chase was able to make them. Way to go BOB!!!

Our invitations were surfboards that we made ourselves also. This was also a family project that was basically completed on evening during Thanksgiving. It took Bob, Angela and I to do it, but they were all done in a matter of hours. Then we, Chase and I, typed up the Party info so it would fit on the boards and found some Hawaiian phrases to include and took them to Kinko’s to print on clear labels. They were sooooo cute, I hated to give them away!

I made the roast pig cake and Timon on top. The surfboard is one of the invitations with the front label pulled off. The cake was chocolate with raspberry curd, which of course I made myself. We also had jello aquariums, though a word of advice should you ever make them, don’t use nerds. They give a dirty take kind of look…Still yummy, but not as cute.

This was the easiest birthday party we have had so far! Everyone had a blast at being able to swim in December and the pool area was nice and warm, though I heard from adults that the water was a little cool. Didn’t seem to bother the kids one little bit!

I hope you enjoy the pictures!