Grand-Dad's Luau Retirement Party

Over Memorial Day weekend we hosted a Luau themed party here in Kentucky in honor of Grand-Dad's upcoming retirement. We had a wonderful time at the party and appreciated everyone who traveled to celebrate with us! 

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Here are Grand-Dad and Grammy by the stone all of the Carlson siblings gave him as a retirement gift. The picture on the table is of Grand-Dad carrying the ceremonial mace at TTU's spring commencement earlier in May. We are so proud of everything Grand-Dad accomplished in his 33 years at TTU. We hope he enjoys his well deserved retirement!

 The LaBar family (minus Andrew and Jen who were busy climbing Denali in Alaska)

 Uncle Martin (Grand-Dad's oldest brother - aka "the other Pop-A-Lops) and his wife, Aunt Faye, with Grammy and Grand-Dad

 Aunt Faye and Uncle Martin came from South Carolina (twice - the first time they forgot their luggage so they had to turn around and go back) to spend the weekend celebrating with us.

 Uncle Scott (Grammy's younger brother), his wife Aunt Arla, and Aunt Pat (Grammy's younger sister) and her husband, Uncle Randy with Grand-Dad and Grammy

 Carlson siblings - Pat, Scott and Sherry

 Uncle Scott and Aunt Arla came from Wisconsin for the weekend

 Aunt Pat and Uncle Randy also came from Wisconsin too

 Aunt Arla, Aunt Pat and Grammy

 Aunt Arla and me

 Aunt Arla dressed Kennedy up in the coconut bra and grass skirt and got her dancing Hawain style. It was so funny! lol :)

 Then the dance party was on with Grammy to be the first to join in the fun!

 Aunt Faye getting her groove on too

 I asked Uncle Martin if he was going to show us his moves. He informed us we had already seen all his moves. Before we knew it, however, he was up and dancing following Missy K's lead and Uncle Scott and Grand-dad joined in as well! :)

 I was persuaded to dance as well :)

 My beauitful Missy K (3 1/2 yrs old)

 Missy Reagan (5 years old) was not in the mood for pictures but I did capture this cute shot

 Jackson (20 months) loves Grammy! 

 Here are some of our table decorations, inside...

 and out...

 The girls popping out from under the table to shout "Happy Retirement!"

 Tim manned the grill and did a great job. Here is working on Dorothy's out of this world chicken kabobs! They are beyond AMAZING!!!

Grand-Dad leading the way to eat

 Aunt Faye and Uncle Martin enjoying the outdoors

 Aunt Arla took this picture of Tim and me

 Jackson and Holden enjoying the sand table together

 They also enjoyed our small swingset on the deck

 Grammy and Aunt Pat decided it wasn't fair for the kids to have all the fun on the trampoline

 Jackson loves the trampoline but only if someone else is on it to bounce him around. He LOVED being on with Grammy and Aunt Pat who made sure he was throughly bounced!

 As usual the girls dressed up as princesses during the party. Kennedy decided to wear our duck costume over her Silvermist (a Disney fairy) dress along with bunny ears. She informed us she was a "fairy duck bunny."

 Then she reclaimed her hawain gear and declared herself to be a "Hawain fairy duck bunny" (her bunny ears fell off just as I took this picture).

Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate the weekend with us! We appreciate all the effort it took for you to be here and everything you contributed! We had an absolutely wonderful time and it would not have been the same without you! Congratulations again to Grand-Dad on his upcoming retirement!