75th Birthday Party for a Very Special Woman

I recently had the great privilege of designing a 75th birthday party for a very special woman, my husband's grandmother. I decided to go with an "A Few of My Favorite Things" theme. Her daughters helped me plan the event and gather information about her likes/favorites, etc. Her favorite color is blue, so we went with blue, gray and white. The tablescape featured signs with lists of her favorite things and activities and a photo of the birthday girl herself, Helena. One of Helena's favorite things is her family, so we made the family the main focus of the decorations. We hung twine all around the room and attached family photos to it with clothespins. The pictures ranged from recent to very old. This actually turned out to be one of the most popular features of the party. Guests loved walking around the room and looking at all of the photos, many of which had them in them. It was also really interesting hearing some of the older guests explaining to younger ones who each person in some of the older photos were.

All of the desserts and foods for the party were made by different family members. My sister Lisa and sister-in-law Casey got asked to make cupcakes, of course :)  We set up a photo booth to try and get photos of all of the families there to put together a scrapbook for Helena. We also set up a board with post it notes to let guests write down memories and some of their favorite things about the birthday girl. The younger kids had a great time drawing pictures for their grandmother, great-grandmother and great-aunt.  Not all of Helena's children and grandchildren were able to make it, but there was still a pretty good crowd and TONS of wonderful food.

Before the party, a memorial service was held for one of Helena's sons, David, who recently passed away. He was a very caring and compassionate man and an amazing son, father, husband, uncle and friend and will be greatly missed. My mother-in-law Cathy sang some beautiful songs for the service and family and friends told stories and read poems about David.


Here are some photos from the party.

I tried something a little different with the banner. What do you think?

I made all of the tabletop picture frames myself using glue, spray paint, mini clay pots and dollar store picture frames. The cupcake towers were made from Walmart plastic plates and wooden candlesticks that I spraypainted.

Helena's daughter Linda taking care of the guestbook table.

The birthday girl enjoying all of her visitors.

The kids had a blast drawing pictures and writing messages for the birthday girl.

Here is one of my favorite photos from the photo booth, one of Helena's three daughters who helped me put this party together. I just love spending time with this family. They are always smiling and laughing and have such a great time together, and have an amazing way of making anyone around them have a good time too.

I hope you had an amazing time Helena! We all love you very much!



Check out Bird's Party blog for great party ideas!
http://www.blog.birdsparty.com

Camo 40th Birthday Cupcakes

This weekend, we celebrated the 40th birthday of my step-dad Scott. He has been hinting for awhile about wanting some camo cupcakes so we gave them a try. My sister Lisa made the cupcakes and frosted them and I made some cupcake toppers for them.  She used chocolate cake and white cake dyed two different shades of green. Instead of just frosting them, she decided to do a camo effect with the frosting as well and it turned out really awesome.

 

Here are a few shots of the process.