A baby’s first birthday is a huge deal in Hawaii. Family and friends gather from all over to attend the baby luau. Eva was born in Hawaii, and I was so bummed that we wouldn’t be able to have her baby luau there. Luckily, we have made some pretty sweet friends here in Tanzania that were able to make Eva’s baby luau feel a little bit more like home. One of these friends is Tahitian, and once had a baby luau of his own. His mom happened to be visiting all the way from Tahiti, which made the luau even more special. We were planning on roasting a pig in a traditional imu, but couldn’t find the proper rocks in time and it didn’t end up working out. We still made kalua pork in the oven with some ti leaves and it was still really good. Along with that, we served mac salad and rice, plate lunch style. Our friend’s mom and wife helped me with the lei, and we ended up having a plumeria lei for each woman and a shell lei for each man that attended. We served mai tais in hollowed out pineapple bowls, and made some pineapple jello shots as well. 😉 We kept the decorations pretty simple, with a few streamers and balloons. Eva had a great time, but ended up crashing halfway through. We tried giving her the cake as soon as she woke up, but she wanted nothing to do with it. Other than that, Eva’s baby luau was much better than I expected it would be, being on the other side of the world from friends, family, and Hawaii.