Every year, I force my best friends to celebrate my birthday with me in a usually over the top multiple location night out (here’s last year’s festivities, which culminated in probably 4 cosmos and a 4 am home arrival!), but this year we had a more low-key picnic party! Picnics are my favorite ever (who doesn’t love eating lots of different foods outside?), so we had my early 24th birthday celebration at Hoʻomaluhia Botanical Garden where we last met for Mikayla’s big day in May. We were sadly missing Parker as he’s not on island this month, but I still had the most fantastic early 24th bash full of delicious food, too many jokes, and a collaborative gift that made me laugh and cry! Kaiʻolu made me this glorious plumeria lei poʻo with baby’s breath she bought at 6 a.m. (I don’t think she slept at all last night) and she cooked my favorite pesto pasta with roasted tomatoes inspired by Brandon’s dish for Mikayla’s birthday, bought several different fruit salads, and made me a pink guava cake, which her lovely sister decorated—albeit with a slight misspelling! Brandon made a huge salad with lots of toppings and he baked his (or Buzzfeed’s) famous soft chocolate chip cookies. Mikayla made rice, bought a large tray of mochiko chicken, and made us mimosas with our juices of choice. After we ate, they presented me with a video of each of them reciting poems they wrote me and I cried and laughed at all of the inside jokes and sweet memories! Even Parker made an appearance! That video was truly the best gift I could ever ask for and it only made me more thankful for these best friends of mine. We may not have gotten to Tchin Tchin this year and we physically missed Parker, but I had the best early 24th birthday celebration with my favorite people!
