Luau Graduation Party

My sister Jessie and I decided to throw our little sister, Danielle a luau graduation. We had it last sunday--and it turned out pretty great. there was a lot of kids and they all seemed to have a nice time. when we were decorating in the morning we were a little nervous with the booming thunder and sprinkles. we tried not to think of the doom and gloom that the weatherman promised. lucky for us he was wrong! it turned out to be really nice the rest of the day and night!! besides being really super muggy the weather was sunny and the luau went on until 10 or so at night. the only thing that kind of bothered me about the party was the menu. i had planned on having your classic hamburger and hot dogs, but wanted to jazz it up with grilled pineapple as one of the possible condiment/topper. I also was hoping for kabobs with shrimp and veggies....my father didnt like this plan and decided pasta, meatballs, sausage and peppers along with the hamburgers and hotdogs. personally, i thought it was silly to serve hot italian food at a luau in 90 degree weather---but he paid for the shin dig so i had to let it go. jessie and i also planned on making the cupcakes ourselves but again...my ever controlling father said NO! we ended up buying them and were a little disapointed that the frosting was airbrushed---they didnt come out half-bad. ohhhh and the cake we ordered. its a photo cake with a pic of danielle at a very young age wearing my older sisters cap and gown. notice the congratafjkads;lfjsd. they messed up so bad on the writing and piping. big y bakery stinks! other than that, i was really happy with how everything came out. the whole family worked hard to make everything nice, im glad we had something special for danielle. i really liked the cupcake tiers we made. i saw a how-to on cakejournal.com, the main difference is i couldnt find any "cake dummies" for the pillars. we ended up using rectangle floral foam---they were pretty nifty though. anyway, just thought you might want to see a glimpse of the decorations and the graduate: