Carlie's Luau

Whoa.  Slow down.  I know it's strange.  I'm here.  On my blog.  Blogging.

And, what's funny is that I'm only doing it to pass the time.

Because I have one more hour to keep myself awake, until we hear for sure that the Noel kids are on the bus.  And, if you have no idea what I'm talking about, go HERE and catch up on our life.  'Cause as you can tell, that's what's been getting all my blog-love lately.

So, because it's late at night, and I just re-read my last three posts, I'm laughing harder than usual that my family blog has turned into absolutely nothing about my kids.  And, for alot of reasons, that doesn't bother me in the least.  But, it might bother my kids someday.

So, I thought I would blog about the next event I have pictures of after my last family post.

And, that would be....drumroll please.  Carlie's 8th Birthday!!  On August 12th!!!

Nothing like ringing in the New Year with some August birthday fun!

And, it really was lots of fun.

I had just arrived from Ghana.  Claver had just arrived from Rwanda.  And, Daddy had just taken care of kids for 10 days straight.

We were definitely in full party mode, as you can imagine. :)

But, we pulled it off.  And, actually had a wonderful time celebrating our sweet girl.

Breakfast in bed, as always, with lots of family love..that literally got bigger overnight!

Thank GOODNESS she wanted powdered donuts and fruit!  That's about all I could have done!

Funny cards from funny sisters...

And our newest family member celebrating Carlie with such excitement!

Church with friends and cousins and a big family lunch at our favorite mexican place.

Aunts who know how to make her feel special in ways only they can.

And, sisters and brother who love their Carlie girl SO MUCH!

A visit from Pops and Grandma for the famous "birthday box" fun!

And, THEN dinner at Gatti Town with Tara (all the way from Rwanda) and her mom!  And, Claver's first arcade experience!!

Later in the week (after I had slept a little!), I got to be the co-planner of the best Hawaiian Luau party ever!  Carlie was the chief planner and she is a pretty good decorator, I must say!  We flew down the party aisle at the party store, since she already knew exactly what she wanted.  And, we planned games, bought food, invited the friends, and decorated the house.

I've personally never loved three Hawaiian girls more than these beauties.

Her party was so much fun!  It was an outdoor party, turned indoors, when the rain came.  But, that didn't stop us from having a grassy green lawn on which to do the crazy hula dance party...

(complete with Rwandan drummer)

Or maybe I should say a Rwandan music band...

Some crazy fun pineapple bowling...(as you can see, I had no part in this at all, which is why I can call it fun.)

And a mean game of limbo.  These kids are GOOD!  My back creaked just watching them.

The party menu was set by Carlie as well, and included lots of little finger foods with a party punch and rainbow colored umbrellas.

She asked Grandma to surprise her with the cake, and oh my goodness, did Grandma surprise us ALL!

It was truly a masterpiece!

And, it had three different flavors in three different layers!  Yum.  Yum.  Yum.

Another first for Claver too.  :)

Carlie wanted all along for the party to include swimming, so we hurriedly changed everyone into swimsuits, and braved the rain to swim for 30 minutes before the party was done.  (That wasn't my favorite part, in case you were wondering.)

I think we definitely fit everything in that was possible in an afternoon!  And, I'm so glad we did.  Because this girl is awesome about sharing her mommy in alot of ways.  (In fact, last August, her birthday had to come late because we were gone to Rwanda.  So, she celebrate twice as hard this year.)

But, what I love most about my Carlie girl, is that she is so incredibly grateful for days like these.  I can't even tell you how many thank-you hugs I received.

And, even more than that, I was proud of her choice to make her party a His Chase Birthday Club party. (Yes, you can have one too.  And, no, I'm not ashamed to advertise this way.) All of her sweet, sweet, SWEET friends brought money for Carlie to purchase a piece of furniture for Hope's Home in Zambia, which was our summer project.

And, get this.  She raised $687 from all of her friends and family!  And, bought the COUCH for the house!!!  What an exciting way to celebrate a sweet girl's birthday!  I pray there is a day when Carlie is sitting on the couch in Zambia with our sweet friends there, knowing that her eighth birthday party had a much bigger value than even the cutest luau in the world.

Sweet kids who now know what it's like to live at home together as a family.

That is priceless.  And, so is my Carlie girl.  :)