A few months ago I decided it would be awesome to have a surprise party for my parents. My mom turned 60 on August 12th and my dad on September 29th. I decided to try to get all my siblings in town for the party and was less than hopeful due to various circumstances and busy schedules. To my absolute delight, everyone ended up coming. We couldn't decide if we should invite lots of people or stick to our immediate family. In the end, we decided it'd be best to have just our siblings to maximize visiting time. We don't get together often and as our family grows, it seems to get harder and harder to coordinate schedules. It would have been fun to have more extended family and maybe even a few friends, but I am really glad we stuck with just the children and grandchildren. In typical Anna fashion, I came up with all sorts of wonderful ideas and bossed everyone around to execute them. I had lots of help* and realized the only way to throw a really awesome party is by having help. Everything came together beautifully and we had a marvelous time. Family, party hats, pictures, fresh flowers and food**. We wanted for nothing (except maybe the poor souls that weren't able to make it).
My dad's favorite candy: "those pink things" (none of us know what they are called, but we all know exactly what they are). Mom's favorite candy: junior mints (and chocolate Neccos, but I wasn't keen on spending money for sugary chalk).
My mom and dad with their 9 children.
The siblings. Apparently the three on the right were having a difficult time behaving.
This picture turned out cute but is missing the 4 Utah grandchiddlers (I've been reading the BFG, can you tell?) and Margo since she was sleeping. Maybe at Christmas??
One thing is for sure: I love my family. I love my parents and my siblings and am grateful to come from such a large family. In preparing for the party, I felt so happy as I focused on what matters most: spending time with and enjoying my family.
*I don't know if I can remember all the things people helped with, but here's a shot: Ryan and Kathryn made a video, Debbie C. helped me with the party hats and delivered the chairs, Rachel cleaned my house all weekend long (including my bathroom which was filthy) and was a second mother to my children, Angela created a photo timeline for the centerpiece (that I dreamed up but made her figure out how to create) and the chalkboard sign and Emily, her kids, Lily and James taped the 200+ pictures I had printed to twine and hung them in the tree, helped me set all the tables and chairs up and put together the favors. Then we got to relax and enjoy the party. :)
**Debbie W. from
Top This Wedding did the food. Other than the party itself, paying someone to do the food might have been the best decision of the night. I have told Jason repeatedly since then that we need to do whatever it takes to be able to have our girl's receptions catered. To be able to enjoy my family before, during and after the party, not have to worry about the right portions and not spend time shopping for the food, prepping the food, setting up the food, serving the food and cleaning up the food while my family was there was dreamy.
Tiffany Haynes took the pictures above.
9 comments:
What a great party! I love your family and love looking at all those pictures!
What an AWESOME family ! I can honestly say I had no idea you had 9 kids in your family. Your parents are amazing : ) We did a surprise party like this for my parent's 40th wedding anniversary several years ago. We flew all the siblings in and it was the BEST surprise !
Such a good idea!
Love spending good quality family time together.
& love the decor!
The last picture made me cry. So sweet.
how fun! And what great pictures! I love them all. What an amazing family.
Hello,
I absolutely adore the decor of this party, it looked amazing and it looked like everyone had a great time. I am trying to use your design as inspiration for my grandmother's upcoming 90th birthday. I was wondering two things, #1 Either how you made the place-mats, or where you got them from, and #2 What you used as stanchions in between you photo close-line?? Thank You So Much!!!
Hi Kaitlin!
I don't know if you'll see this, but I don't know how to get in touch with you. My older sister designed the placemats and we just had them printed. The posts in between the photo timeline were made using a 4" (I think, it might have been 5 or 6, it's been a while since I purchased it) cube beam from Home Depot, that I cut into cubes. I drilled a hole into the top and stuck a 12" dowel in. Then you just spray paint the entire thing. We had string that we wrapped a few times around each dowel and used a tiny clear hair rubberband to keep the string from slipping down. If you leave me your e-mail address, I can e-mail you and answer more questions!
Hi there!
So I found this post via Pinterest and I absolutely love everything! We are planning on doing a 60th bday party for my mom and this is exactly what I envisioned doing. If you have the time, could you possibly shoot me an email with any and all things you can remember that you guys did for this party? My email address is caileytonks@hotmail.com. Thanks so much!!
Hello! I love the photo timeline and would like to make something similar for my wedding centerpieces. This may be a silly question, but did you have double-backed photos? I'm trying to figure out how guests on both sides of the table can see the pictures (and not just the backside of a photograph). Thanks for your help!
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