Friday, August 26, 2011

Flashback Friday: Poly Flava

During the summer of 2003, my friends and I threw one of my favorite parties of all time.  I had just recently returned from my semester teaching in New Zealand and I still had a "bit" of the Polynesian Islands on my mind.  What better summer group date than a themed "Poly Flava" one!?
 All of the girls pitched in with the decorations.  It was quite the feat!  We covered all of the apartment walls with light and dark blue butcher paper.  Than we all spent hours cutting out and creating fish and other sea animals to put in our 'ocean'.  The Heimback sisters pretty much took over using their creative genes to come up with some of the most creative sea life.  Becky even made duck butts to put on the ceiling so it looked like we were in the water looking up to the surface...genius!  We made a kelp garden out of brown butcher paper, hung green and blue ribbon and streamers from the ceiling to make it have the feeling of being surrounded by sea weed.  We also had a big bucket filled with sand for people to make sand castles and burning tiki torches.  We even filled an entire kiddie pool inside of our apartment and then put 30 gold fish inside...I'll fill you in on what we did with the left over gold fish later...  In short the decorations turned out amazingly!
 Everyone came dressed in their Polynesian outfits.  It was a good thing I brought back 7 different sarongs from New Zealand so those who didn't have anything to wear could borrow one.  JT even borrowed my coconut bar to wear for the evening, although it was a bit difficult to stay up!
 We started the evening with dinner, Hawaiian Pizza, but since there were over thirty of us attending, several sat outside on the grass to eat.  We then broke up into groups to play games while Polynesian music played in the back ground.  It was a great way to meet new people and have fun with friends.
 In the above picture you can see the kiddie pool along with all the gold fish.  The fish loved all the music!  After games we all packed into the apartment for a fun dance party.  One of my best friends, Whitney, and I ended up getting a little out of control (like usual) and almost fell into the pool...no worries though, no gold fish were injured...at that point...
 In the above picture you can see Mikey in front of the sandbox and tiki torches.  Thank heavens we had such great guy friends!  They were great about helping us move all the sand the next couple days.
 After dinner, games, and the dance party, we all drove out to the Heimback's cousins' house.  They have an incredible valley in their back yard that was perfect for an outdoor movie.  We all brought tons of pillows and blankets, coated on the mosquito repellent, and then sat back to enjoy our movie.  It was the perfect ending to a super fun date!
Thanks to all those who were a part of this night!  It continues to be one of my favorite memories from the 198th ward :)  Love you guys!

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