Chase's 1st Birthday Lu'au

Saturday, 21 June 2008

It's the big party day! We all left at 7:45 am. Auntie Stevi, Uncle Gary, cousins Geoff and Lauren, my mom and Gary, Chris, and I. The Halsalls came and picked up Chase and would bring him later. We put together all the tables and chairs, tablecloths, favors, and centerpieces, signs and banners, games in the other room. Sent Uncle Gary to get the cakes and ice at Costco. Jay and Shelly brought the chafing dishes and coolers. The band came and set up their music equipment at 8:30 am. I oriented Kai and Jason on the group photos and the computer. Guests started to arrive at 10 am.

We fit all 150 people in the Atherton Halau. I hardly talked to anyone. The only time I sat down was when I was nursing Chase (and I got to eat a little too). In fact, I even walked around nursing him and stood up nursing him, as I tried to locate Chris all day, turn my video camera on for certain events, and say hi to people. It was nice to see my dad's cousins there and my stepsisters Lindsey and Whitney. It was also awesome that my cousin Stephanie and Auntie Jane could bring Jake and Jaslynn from Seattle to make the party. I ran around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to keep things moving and making sure everything was flowing, people were lining up to eat, people were taking group pictures, and kids were playing games or doing arts and crafts. I kept talking to the facility host to make sure we had a mic and had to pay for museum tickets for our guests. When I wasn't nursing Chase, someone else was holding him. I didn't know where he was half the time. It's a good thing I knew everyone in the room.

The Hawaiian food was ono (delicious). My brother was awesome and kept the food going, replacing chafing dishes with fresh food and making sure everything was filled up. I don't think he and Shelly ate until everyone got their plates. That was awesome of him to pick up that responsibility. He did such a good job that one guest even asked him if he was the caterer and if she could have his card.

I had way too much stuff planned. We had no time for the fishing game and arts and crafts on the other side. The magic show was awesome, very entertaining for adults and kids. I was pleasantly surprised. It was a nice addition to the party. For an introverted computer tech teacher, he had a funny sense of humor and was wildly entertaining for all. And everyone enjoyed getting fun balloons made after. Though that was all a blur to me. I wish I had gotten a balloon made for Chase! I think I got some of the magic show and some of my auntie and cousin dancing hula on video though.

My feet were extremely sore from being in heels all day long. Everyone helped clean up afterwards. I was nervous that we wouldn't make our 2 pm clean up time as people were still hanging out and enjoying themselves at 1:30 pm (and our party was supposed to end at 1 pm). But, we did it. The day went by so fast.

Of course I kept thinking of stuff I should have done after the fact. Like, I should have had all the children come and help Chase blow out the candles (though a couple of them did). I should have had Uncle Dave take group pictures of the kids. I should have had him take group pictures of the family. And the Mau Family relatives whom I hardly see but once a year. Oh well. I was running around and didn't have time to coordinate all of that. It was nice to see coworkers, friends, and family all together. I hope they all got to see Chase! I didn't even give Chase any birthday cake! He didn't need the sugar anyway. But, thanks to his morning nap, he WAS wide awake for his whole birthday party (though he probably didn't even realize this was all for him!).

I had hundreds of soap favors left (I told my mom she can take a whole suitcase worth of soap favors back to California for the relatives!), a few sand pail centerpieces with goodies left, and tons of food. People took home food, but we still had tons ourselves. I divvyed it all up between our three Mau households when we got home. We had kalua pig, lomi salmon, Hanalei poi, sweet potato, squid luau, pipikaula, tako poke, ahi poke, raw crab, and sweet potato haupia pie....all leftover! I'm sure after this weekend, I'll be sick of eating Hawaiian food, so I'll have to freeze what I can.

Surprisingly, Chris and I still had energy to walk through the whale exhibit at the museum with my mom and Gary. We unloaded all of his gifts and put away most of the things when we got home. Chase played at the Halsalls all afternoon until we picked him up. He had a hard time winding down and going to sleep. He has so many gifts on our coffee table in the living room. He only sees his toys though. Little does he know that these are all for him. We're not planning on opening them until his real birthday next weekend though. We'll see if he lets us wait that long.

It was a successful, yet exhausting day. It was definitely a much bigger production than our own wedding! Mostly because we did everything ourselves. We had a lot of help (thanks to my wonderful family!), and I think everyone had fun. We didn't even use the two pinatas or hats for the kids. We have a bunch of stuff to return at Costco....sternos, Finding Nemo plates, food snacks, etc. All excess stuff we bought (especially as it got closer to the party and I wanted to make sure we didn't forget anything) and didn't use. Chris said we'll save the party goodies and paper goods and utensils for Chase's 2nd birthday, and this time he'll do the planning. Well, that's easy...everything's already done! (but something tells me we won't be doing quite such a big event the next birthday.)

And, no, I don't have any pictures yet....Surprise, surprise, I actually didn't take any! But, my dad's friend Dave was running around taking pictures (and I'm sure other family and friends took some), so hopefully I'll have some to post soon!