About 2 weeks ago, we were at a birthday party for one of our nephews, and my sister-in-law whispered to me that we should be planning something special for our father-in-law’s upcoming 90th birthday. To be honest, I had no idea he was turning 90. I thought he was in his mid-eighties, but I totally agreed that 90 deserved a BIG party. So I began to look for ideas for this party and a place to host it. Keep in mind this is the man who has farmed for his entire life and was in and out of the hospital for most of the past year.
I know you don’t have to have a theme for a party, but it certainly makes it easier to make choices when you have a specific direction. After a bit of looking, (and ruling out a LOT of ideas) I came across several “Favorite Things” parties, and the idea seemed perfect for the occasion. So I made a list of about 30 favorite things questions – everything from favorite song to favorite car to favorite sandwich – and my husband interviewed his dad to get the answers.
We set the date for Sunday afternoon, and after we knew we could get him up the 5 front porch steps, we decided to host it here. His dad knew I was going to make “something” with all his favorites (obviously from all the questions) and he knew we were going to have a birthday party here with the immediate family members. What we didn’t tell him (nor his wife because we were afraid she would spill the beans) was that we were also inviting a number of extended family members and about 25 of his friends for this party too.
When he told my husband that his favorite color was brown, I thought…No way! and I said, Then why in the world do you always buy red trucks?? His reply was, Well okay. I like brown for clothes and red for trucks. So the color scheme for the party became brown and red, and it was used on all the paper goods and flower arrangements I made for the event.
I am not really a big fan of roses, but I needed red flowers. Tulips and roses were the only red ones available here, and tulips seemed too much like springtime to me. So roses had to be the choice.
We also wanted to include old photos so family members dropped off snapshots of him that they had. Our daughter and her boyfriend copied them all for me in black and white, and our daughter made a giant collage in the shape of a 90 on the family room mirror. (And yes, I took out all the “snow decor” that was in most of the house, but it will be back.)
I wanted to showcase lists of his favorite things, and clipboards from Office Depot worked out to be a great way to display them and other signs. I did create one large one (that only looked like a clipboard) from plywood wrapped in craft paper with an aluminum foil wrapped cardboard “clip.”
We swapped out the small table in the family room for the large one in the dining room so that the guest of honor could be near the serving table. The menu was simple to come up with. It was all of my father-in-law’s favorites.(And boy is he a chocoholic!)
Because his favorites included 2 chocolate cakes and strawberry shortcake, we ended up with 3 cakes for the event. My sister-in-law purchased a 14 layer cake from our local bakery…
and I made a German Chocolate cake and a cream cheese pound cake (for the strawberry shortcake.)
We also served his favorite candies, cookies, fruits, nuts (roasted pecans prepared by my sister-in-law), cheese wafers (prepared by my mother) and sandwiches (which our daughter’s boyfriend helped me make.)
A hot chocolate bar was set up on the back porch, and his favorite cold drinks (chocolate milk and Orange Crush) and ice creams (strawberry and black walnut) were set up in the dining room. We also had peanuts to pour into the Cokes as an added treat from his youth.
My brother’s wife had given me this box of personalized Coke bottles for my birthday back in August. She ordered them directly from Coca-Cola.
I thought it was such a clever and sweet idea that I ordered some for my father-in-law’s party…a number of them with his full name (sorry, I edited out his last name for privacy reasons) and some with “a 90 year old.”
At 3:00 the guest of honor, his wife, and the guests began to arrive…
All 56 guests came to wish the guest of honor Happy Birthday.
Here’s my sister (who happens to be his home health nurse) giving him a gift of “vitamins” (actually a jar full of chocolate candy.)
And here is our very helpful niece with her precious daughter entertaining the birthday boy.
My father-in-law and everyone else seemed to enjoy the party, and a large number of them even stayed long after the end of the 3-5 drop in time. (That’s a sign of a good party to me.)
Before each guest left, I tried to make sure they stopped by our old piano to pick up their little “goodie bag.”
Remember in my last post about our kitchen, I said I was baking 18 dozen cookies?
Well… it ended up being 20 dozen.
I’ve got that Toll House cookie recipe memorized now.
Oh, and for some crazy reason you all said you would like to see the messy kitchen when I was baking those cookies, so at your request, here it is (cookie baking, list making, peaches in window, and all.)
I ran out of both waxed paper and parchment and had to resort to using plastic wrap on the counter.
So now you have seen the messy kitchen.
And that, my dear friends, was our Favorite Things Sort-of-Surprise Birthday Party for my 90 year old father-in-law. I think we accomplished a lot for having only 2 weeks to pull it off. Don’t you?
Before I leave you all today, I have to say thank you to some people. There is no way I could have possibly done all of this without their help…
- My husband for all his work in the yard and going with me to shop for everything we needed (and contacting folks to invite.)
- My mother for baking a zillion cheese crisp wafers, washing a zillion strawberries, dishing up ice cream, and doing anything else she could to help.
- My sister-in-law for her idea that started it all, for taking care of that cake that neither of us could bake, and for preparing all those pecans.
- My niece Ashley, for repeatedly offering any help she could provide (even if she does live in South Carolina!) and taking care of all the balloons around here.
- My daughter and her boyfriend who helped me prepare the food and house, and even fetched a runaway balloon down from our two story family room ceiling! (Sean, you are so smart.)
It is always always a group effort around here. And I thank you for allowing me to share our home, our food, our events, and our life with you in the posts. Thank you for reading!
Until next time…