Happy Retirement!

Yesterday was my mother in law's much anticipated retirement party! I have been preparing for it for weeks and have been SO excited to celebrate with my in-laws. My mother in law {Carolyn} has worked for Orange Unified School District {same district I work for!} for 25 years...18 at her current school. She went back to work when Justin went off to kindergarten...and worked several positions within the school district including noon supervisor, instructional assistant, librarian and then her most current position; health clerk. She works at an awesome school with a lot of REALLY fabulous teachers, staff and families. I know she will be SO missed and I also know how challenging it is to leave your *home* away from home. When you work at a school, you leave behind not only colleagues, but families, children and a community. Her retirement is going to be a mix of emotions at first and I wanted nothing more than to show her so much appreciation for a job well done. :)
Carolyn loves Hawaii. I mean, she LOVES Hawaii. ;) So, I knew a luau themed party would be perfect! Unfortunately all of the party stores are plastered in Halloween and fall decor {and even some Christmas!} and luau or Hawaiian themed party decor were not readily available. Thank goodness for Oriental Trading and scouring the Internet for ideas that I could use with things I already had or could easily find. In that process, I came across some VERY creative people. I am blown away by the creativity of others. I just don't have that...don't let the kinder teacher title fool you...I really am not creative! So, I did the best I could... ;)
Here are some photos of the decorations I came up with...enjoy!

Gift bags...inside were yummy sugar cookies



My friend Sarah made these...sometimes a girl has to call in back up! ;)
Here is the link to her site...she also made Carter's cupcakes and smash cake!
http://bradycakes.com/



A view of our island with the appetizers out

What do you think? Luau-ish? :)

Leis for everyone

This was my attempt at getting creative...I like the way it turned out :)



The food is always the highlight of any really good party...right?! So, that's where I invested the most time. I scoured the Internet in the hopes of finding the perfect luau menu. This was after looking at several different options for catering. Haha. Hey...like I said, sometimes a girl has to call in back up! Well, after much going back and forth, I decided to go for it! We are going to be hosting Christmas this year at our house...and I decided this was a good test to see if I could really pull off cooking a family sized feast for my in-laws and send everyone away satisfied and asking for the recipes ;). Well, mission accomplished!
Here are some pictures of the yummy Hawaiian foods I made. Enjoy!

The kalua pork was SO dang good. I mean, mouth watering, melts in your mouth yummy. It slow cooked for 20 hours...but it easily could have been eaten at the 16 hour mark. I also bought a bottle of BBQ sauce made in Hawaii and we made little sandwiches with Hawaiian sweet rolls and a little dollop of the BBQ sauce...Mmmmm so good!
Here's the link to the recipe...only 3 ingredients...SO easy!
http://www.food.com/recipe/kalua-pig-in-a-slow-cooker-211379

This is I just made up as I went along ;) I added pineapple juice, guava juice, frozen strawberries and Ginger Ale...it was a hit :)

This for me was the most challenging because I have never ventured away from the box! I didn't realize how many ingredients go into the REAL DEAL! And boy am I glad I did! It took several pep talks and texts from my best friend to get through the long process...but the end's result was SO worth it! They are by far my favorite recipe from the night. Here is the link... :)
http://glorioustreats.blogspot.com/2010/08/pina-colada-cupcakes-recipe.html

Well, there were BIG plans here to make fruit skewers....but I ran out of time ;) So I just added a cup of skewers next to the fruit and that was a hit. The coconut shrimp I can hardly take credit for. They were frozen BUT with keeping the authenticity of the theme in mind...I scoured a few different grocery stores to find the perfect ones! These were made in Hawaii...and they were delish...now if only I didn't rush Justin out with the garbage bags last night, I might have had a chance to find the name for you...I got them at Albertsons...blue box...hope that helps!

Both of these recipes were super simple and super yummy. This was my first time cutting chicken wings. I know, have I lived under a rock for the last 6 years I've been married and cooking real food...well, I have always bought the pre-cut wings and after butchering several of these poor little guys, I finally went to the computer for my dear friend Google to find out what the heck I was doing. Turns out it is SO easy to cut a chicken wing...who knew?! Take the wing, make a V and cut down into the joint...I was literally cutting through bone and almost lost a finger doing so...thank you Google! Here are the links to both recipes...enjoy!
http://www.food.com/recipe/aloha-chicken-wings-77820
http://www.food.com/recipe/Hawaiian-Baked-Beans-75683
{I omitted the cubed ham in the baked beans...just because I'm not a huge fan, but I'm sure it would add a lot of extra flavor}



I didn't get a picture {or at least a good one} of the yummy onion dip I made with sweet onions. Carolyn LOVES Maui sweet onions so I had to make her something with sweet onions and found a recipe for onion dip that I thought looked amazing. But honestly when I poured it out of the food processor and it resembled more of baby cereal than onion dip, I started to sweat...but after about an hour in the fridge, it formed a great texture and was a favorite of everyone...here's the recipe, you HAVE to try it. SO good!

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2011/07/28/baked-zucchini-sticks-and-sweet-onion-dip-that-bloomin-zucchini/

I didn't make the zucchini sticks with them, but I'm sure they would have been amazing!

Well, whenever all of the kiddos get together, they have such a blast. Carter woke up from his nap to a house bustling with noise, laughter and toys everywhere! I think he thought he was still dreaming! It was SO cute to see all of his cousins rush over to him when he first woke up, to give him hugs or pet his soft hair {this is so funny to me, but other kids are just so fascinated with Carter's hair...perhaps it's the red hair :)}! Haha. I wish I could have snapped some photos of that. It was truly heart warming and so, so funny. Carter looked so excited to see everyone! Here are some pictures of the cousins playing and some other family shots from the party. Enjoy!

They were all SO cute sitting at the "kids table" together...even Carter got to join them this time!

They thought it was hilarious to have Carter chase after them...his cousins would say "Get us Baby!" and Carter would go running after them screaming on the top of his lungs...great ambiance while us adults tried to chat...geesh! ;)

This is the best picture.. :)

Carter showing his cousins his play house :)

Handsome boy! 

Keeley and Annabella showing Carter the fine art of making balls with play-dough and  then becoming utterly disgusted when Carter surprisingly bit off a piece! Haha

Yummy cupcake :)

Annabella and Carter

Jeffrey, Keeley and Annabella

The lady of the hour! Happy Retirement Mom!

Thanks for all of your HARD work getting this house clean and I mean DEEP cleaned. This guy is amazing. :)

Well ladies and gentlemen...this is Carter's new "smiley face"....it all started about a week ago and now whenever we pull out a camera...we don't even have to say "smile" or "cheese", he makes THIS face. Crazy right?! It's not a good look for him...but we can't break the news to him quite yet. ;)

Oh Daddy tricked him and snapped a photo very quickly!

That face again! Haha

Kisses :)

Grandpa and Carter...and Grandpa's pink lei that Justin gave to him as a joke..and he was such a good sport about it ;)

Well, there you have it! It was a success! The best party we've ever thrown at our house. Justin and I wanted his Mom to have a party that was memorable and showed our appreciation and love for her. I hope we were able to capture that and I know she had a great time. Happy Retirement Mom! And I leave you with a little photo that will truly pull on your heart strings...every student at Anaheim Hills elementary wrote a sweet message on a flower and the teachers made a little leis out of them. They were then presented to her at a surprise assembly on her last day of work and each class had a student come up and put the lei around her neck. She had about 20 of them and some of the older students wrote such sweet and heartwarming messages! I'm so glad she brought them to share. This is WHY leaving your job at a school is SO hard. She will miss those kiddos so much. Enjoy the picture!