For my mother’s seventieth birthday, her one request was to have the ladies who love her most below one roof at our house for a lake weekend. We needed to make it occur and from begin to end the entire weekend felt so very very similar to my mother. It was cozy and cozy, heat and welcoming, supportive and loving. It stuffed all of us up with gratitude for my mother, the present chief of our household and the primary to show 70 from her era of girls, and I believe she left our house on Sunday feeling extremely cherished.
In right this moment’s weblog submit I’m going to do my greatest to breakdown my mother’s seventieth birthday celebration in a manner that recaps our weekend but in addition shares a bit about what labored nicely for us when planning the weekend to hopefully make it a little bit useful for anybody else on the market who may be planning a milestone birthday celebration sooner or later!
seventieth Birthday Celebration
Turning 70 years previous is a giant milestone and one which actually felt worthy of celebrating. My mother is an introvert at coronary heart so we knew a large gathering with tons of individuals or a loopy occasion wasn’t actually her fashion. However a relaxed weekend with household, a sprinkling of enjoyable video games and floating within the lake? That’s my mother to a tee!
Selecting the date for my mother’s seventieth birthday weekend was simple as her birthday fell on a Saturday. I texted my aunt and my mother’s cousins a couple of 12 months in the past, telling them to order the weekend for my mother’s seventieth. Solely two girls couldn’t make it which we greater than understood and my mother was thrilled to have eight girls (and one teeny child) below one roof to have a good time her special occasion.
My mother and sister arrived on the town on Thursday night so they may have a little bit extra time with Ryan and the boys earlier than Ryan whisked Chase, Ryder and Rhett off for a guys’ weekend tenting at Jellystone. This meant the ladies of the household may fully take over our home for a ladies’ weekend and everybody else arrived sooner or later on Friday.
When planning the weekend, my sister and I did our greatest to suppose by the menu and plan a collection of meals we all know my mother loves. One factor I additionally took away from planning a seventieth birthday celebration? If you happen to’re providing to assist with occasion planning, be as particular as potential together with your supply. I can not let you know how useful it was to me and my sister when my mother’s sister and cousins texted us with particular provides of assist from making a blueberry breakfast casserole, to dealing with Saturday’s lunch or delivery a themed charcuterie board to the home to snack on all weekend lengthy. We graciously accepted all of their provides to assist and I additionally suppose it meant so much to my mother that so many ladies wished to chip in and make her birthday so particular.
seventieth Birthday Celebration Concepts
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seventieth Birthday Occasion Theme
By way of a celebration theme for my mother’s birthday weekend, our theme was a fairly free one however it had a semi-70s really feel with a number of daisies, bubbly fonts on the video games, retro birthday banner and tumblers, and shiny colours within the coral-pink-orange-yellow colour palette. (I eliminated the peace indicators and didn’t use a number of the “keep groovy” indicators that got here with the birthday banner to maintain issues a little bit extra easy and fewer in-your-face ’70s.) My mother, aunt and her cousins obtained a giant kick out of the fonts used and stated they reminded them of The Monkees and their album covers!
Exercise-wise, planning the weekend was extremely simple as my mother wasn’t thinking about a spa day, a wine tasting or anything that basically required us to depart the home. A lake day that included video games and floating within the lake was her fundamental request and it helped make the entire weekend really feel extremely relaxed and saturated with high quality time with everybody who attended.
My mother additionally wished to stream her favourite film, The Sound of Music, throughout her birthday weekend and we did this on Saturday night time whereas we performed Clean Slate which had all of us completely cracking up! I do know I’ve advisable Clean Slate up to now, however it actually is a ten/10 sport with the best studying curve.
For the extra customized video games, I did my greatest to middle them across the birthday lady! I made a trivia sport with questions on my mother’s life and tried to make the questions ones that numerous folks within the group would be capable of reply with out one particular person fully dominating the sport. My mother’s sister received the sport which was excellent!
We additionally had a This or That sport the place everybody circled the merchandise they thought my mother most well-liked from a listing of things and my mother performed alongside together with her solutions serving as the reply key. The ultimate birthday celebration sport was a “Identify 7” sport the place everybody was challenged to call seven objects in as could classes as potential in seven minutes. (This one had us cracking up, too!)
By way of occasion favors, we couldn’t resist including a number of particular touches to assist bear in mind the weekend and Etsy was my go-to useful resource for occasion favors. I discovered the cutest can koozies with a polaroid-style graphic on Etsy and uploaded a photograph from my mother’s childhood to provide them a extra private really feel. I additionally ordered tumblers in a wide range of colours for everybody as a memento however in addition they served a objective and made it simpler for everybody to know which cup was theirs all weekend lengthy. (I chosen this store as a result of they had been made with a UV print and never vinyl, making them a little bit extra sturdy.) I ordered daisy print make-up pouches off Amazon and added letter patches to every one to personalize them and included a smiley-face bathe steamer as nicely.
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Favourite Issues Present Trade
Along with shocking my mother with a handful of birthday presents (extra on this beneath!), we did a “favourite issues” reward change the place everybody wrapped up one thing to share inside a sure price range. We ran the favourite issues reward change equally to how my girlfriends and I do our Favourite Issues Evening round Valentine’s Day yearly.
(My contribution to the favourite issues change: Massive make-up bag / Tangle Teezer hairbrush / Jukebox cleaning soap / Lakur nail polish / Electrical lighter / Satin scrunchie)
Everybody drew a quantity out of a jar to find out the order wherein they may choose a present from the pile and every reward might be stolen thrice earlier than it was “useless” and was not up for grabs. If a present was stolen, the one who had their reward stolen may select one other reward. Because it was my mother’s birthday, we gave her the ultimate steal of the sport!
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Household Scrapbook Shock
My sister and aunt had the sweetest thought for a shock for my mother from our household: A household scrapbook! Every particular person in our household (grandkids included!) was answerable for bringing a 12×12 scrapbook web page to my mother’s birthday weekend. We assembled the whole lot into one large scrapbook as a shock for my mother to open over breakfast on her birthday. It was so enjoyable for all of us to flip by to see previous pictures and browse a little bit bit about what everybody loves about my mother however watching my mother mild up as she took in every web page was the spotlight!
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Throwback Mementos + Child Guide
My mother was so candy and packed up a field of some throwback mementos (books, magazines, and so forth.) to deliver to her birthday weekend which made it all of the extra enjoyable to look again and bear in mind the varied a long time of her life. She additionally packed her child ebook which was so amusing for all of us, as she seemed like each single one in every of her grandkids in at the least one picture from her child ebook.
The older I get, the extra I notice I’d fairly have the host of a celebration current than bustling across the kitchen making elaborate meals throughout a celebration. I attempted my greatest to take this thought to coronary heart and we created a menu for the weekend that included meals my mother loves but in addition plenty of meals we may prep prematurely. Right here’s what our menu for the weekend seemed like:
Friday:
- Lunch: Hen salad/ Tuna salad / Easy summer time pasta salad / Croissants / Recent fruit + veggies
- Dinner: Lasagna/ Watermelon, cucumber, feta and mint salad / Honey glazed carrots / Italian bread and butter
- Dessert: One bowl brownies / Selfmade birthday cake ice cream
Saturday:
- Breakfast: Greek yogurt breakfast parfait bar with recent berries and do-it-yourself granola / Blueberry breakfast cake / Breakfast sausage
- Lunch: Easy summer time chopped salad / Hen salad/ Tuna salad / Easy summer time pasta salad / Croissants / Recent fruit + veggies / Macarons
- Dinner: French dip sandwiches (I picked these up from a neighborhood restaurant as a result of they’re my mother’s favourite) / French fries / Salad
- Dessert: Angel meals cake / Vanilla cake with buttercream icing / Assorted ice cream / Selfmade chocolate sauce (I must share this recipe!)
Sunday:
We additionally had a ton of snacks accessible always that included a giant charcuterie board, assorted chips and dip, Chex Combine, popcorn, fruit, crackers, and so forth.
By way of drinks, we had a number of wine readily available but in addition made mimosas on Saturday morning and tequila sunrises for everybody for comfortable hour on Saturday.
From begin to end my mother’s seventieth birthday weekend had all of us smiling so large. My mother known as the weekend a “ceaselessly life spotlight” and I couldn’t agree extra. I do know I hit the jackpot with my mother as my mom and hope she is aware of how deeply she is cherished and cherished.
Comfortable seventieth Birthday, Mama!!!
