When my dad turned 60 in 2006, our family planned a major surprise party complete with rented tables and table cloths from a party supply company, a caterer, a substantial guest list, and tributes to him including a DVD with pictures from throughout his life set to music. It was very difficult to try to keep a secret from my dad because he is at my house all the time because we work together and are always exchanging paperwork. My parents also live very close to me, which made keeping a surprise even more challenging. In fact, before the house on the lot next to his was built, my dad had been known to "spy" on my house with binoculars since his house is higher up than mine, and he could look down on us. For example, one day, a Federal Express truck stopped in front of my house to deliver a package. No less than 20 seconds after the truck left, my phone rang. It was my dad - wanting to know if the package Federal Express just left was for him. Needless to say, it was very difficult trying to plan a surprise party & keeping it from my dad, but the party turned out to be a resounding success! All of his children came to town to celebrate this grand occasion, and it was a memory I think my entire family will always hold dear.
So - as mom's 60th birthday approached on January 22nd, we knew we had to do something grand for her as well. Our challenge was that we had received strict instructions from my mom, as I mentioned earlier, that she did not want a surprise, and definitely not a huge, open house birthday party like my dad's. Something with just the family would be just perfect. OK mom - boring! Despite her requests, I, for one thought she needed a bigger celebration. We have a family party for her every year, and this year needed to be different.
After contriving with my siblings, we decided that we would have her family celebration the Sunday before her birthday, and Dawnae and Janae's families would travel from Utah to be here for that. Then, we would plan a little surprise celebration on mom's actual birthday (2 days later) with all the sisters & sisters-in-law and a few of my mom's closest friends. Janae & Dawnae's families would go home on Monday, and Dawnae & Janae would come over & "hide out" at my house so we would get ready for and host the party on Tuesday. We decided that my mom would be completely surprised by the Tuesday party because she would think all of the birthday festivities were over. We were right, and mom was definitely surprised. I will share the details about the surprise party in my next post. For now - let me share our family celebration.
We also wanted to give my mom a couple of very personal gifts on this milestone birthday. One of the gifts was this beautiful quilt for her master bedroom at the cabin.
It was a labor of love, created by all of her grandchildren with hours of help from my sis-in-law Kimmy. Without Kimmy's sewing expertise and quilting connections, this quilt would not have been completed by my mom's birthday. One of my best memories of planning my mom's birthday celebration was the time that I spent with Kimmy working on this quilt. She basically sewed the entire thing while I was her chief quilt block cutter and ironer. She drove to my house, bringing her sewing machine, each time we got together so Ben could be home to nap. She generously gave of her time and talents for me & my mom. Thank you, dear Kimmy!
As you can guess, my mom absolutely loved this treasure. The squares of the quilt are artwork from her grandchildren. Each child drew a picture that reminded him or her of the cabin (with the exception of the 5 babies - & we have hand prints from each of them.) After getting a digital image of the pictures, I printed them onto transfer paper and ironed the images onto the quilt squares. It worked great!
We also presented my mom with a unique scrapbook imagined & created by my sister-in-law Karla. In the picture below, some of the granddaughters look on as my mom pages through the book, which Karla titled "In a Word". The pages contained sentiments from every family member, including pictures of each person. We all chose a word that we felt described my mom and then wrote her a message and explained why we chose that particular word. Words - which all describe my mom to a "T" included - teacher, friend, mother, survivor, generous, caring, charitable, committed, determined, encouraging, happy, loving, shopping buddy, selfless, sweet, and more.
We ended the night eating yummy birthday cake, and my mom proclaimed that this was the perfect party and just what she wanted! Well - glad you felt that mom, but more was to come!
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