Scavenger Chic

A Week to Plan a Birthday Party

• By Joan
• April 23, 2015
• 4 Comments

Several weeks ago my husband was chatting with his brothers.  At some point they realized that their oldest brother, Bill, was celebrating his 60th birthday this year. And as luck would have it he would be in town the month before the big day.  This was a big deal, in the 31 years that my husband and I have been married, we have never actually celebrated Bill’s birthday.  He actually lives 11 hours away, so the celebration is either a card or a phone call. So, between the brothers, they decided that we would host the party. Was that OK with me?  Sure.

Fast forward to last Sunday when I get a call from my mother-in-law. Is there anything I can help you with for the party?  Uhhh…no, I’m good.

Quick phone call to my husband who happened to be out of town. “When exactly is this party?”  SATURDAY?!  Uh-oh, I better get busy.  And that is how it came about that I had to plan a 60th birthday party in less than a week.

Monday

Luckily there was no need to send invitations, the texting and phone calls back and forth had already set the date. It was going to be a small affair, just a dozen people, but it did have to be special…it was a milestone birthday after all.

First thing Monday morning I hit up the Pinterest boards.  There are so many clever people out there and there is certainly no need to reinvent the wheel, or the 60th birthday party in this case.

Over at  Creative Melissa Designs, Melissa has pictures documenting the highlights of each decade from the 50’s to 00’s.  She has gone through all the research and has kindly included a pdf to print. How easy is that?

Ten minutes later my decades were printed and ready to be framed.  Luckily I had some cheap frames that had once housed my sons sports pictures.

Several folks had a collage of the birthday boy (or girl)  in the shape of the number of years they were turning.

Back to the computer.  Luckily I had my mother-in-laws old albums from when she moved and a bunch of party pictures.  Had to scan some old pictures, but eventually I had enough to make a halfway decent “60”.

Now for a birthday gift.

Tuesday

Sue, over at Creative “Try” als has come up with a perfect gift for that guy or girl turning 60.

If you check out her website, she has Olive Oil for that oil of old age (and beauty secrets), Iron on Starch for a wrinkle remover, Energizer batteries to keep going and going, Act II popcorn for that second act in life, socks, puzzle, mints and advil.

My shopping list was set. Unfortunately I didn’t put down “energizer” batteries and picked up duracell batteries so I couldn’t use that “going and going” saying, so changed it slightly…when you’re a bit out of energy.

I added a few of my own ideas and dropped a couple, but you get the idea.

Had to get underwear, it went along with my card.

This was the inside of the card.

All packaged in a nice little trashcan.  Now Bill can survive into his 60’s and beyond. 

All was going amazingly smoothly so I took Wednesday off from party planning and worked on my dump desk.

Thursday

It would be nice if I had a menu. The brother-in-laws were assigned beer and wine so that was taken care of.

Menu:

  Guacamole and chips

  Chicken Buffalo Dip (yum)

  Marinated Steak on the Grill

  Rolls

  Caesar Salad

  Fruit (which ended up to just be strawberries)

  Baked Vegetables

  Cupcakes

 Back to Pinterest…Holly, over at Nothing but Bonfires threw a surprise party so that when the honoree came in everyone was holding a mask of her. 

Such a fun idea! My problem was that everyone was getting to our house at different times.  Many of them were after our honoree.  Still wanted to use the idea so decided to take a family group shot after all had arrived where everyone would hold up a picture of Bill taken at different stages of his life.

Printed out full size pictures of our birthday boy onto cardstock, enough for everyone to have one. You don’t need one for the cameraman or the birthday boy.

These were then hot glued onto pieces of wood.  Could have also used paint sticks or popsicle sticks.

The hubby was assigned the task of coming up with trivia questions about our birthday boy.

Friday

Grocery shopping, marinating the steak and of course cleaning up the house.  Also stopped at Home Depot to get a few flowers to fill some pots.  It was going to be a beautiful day!

Son #1 was asked if could he bring the giant Jenga game he had made for his wedding.  The kids at the wedding had all played the game but none of the adults had a chance.

Had the hubby pick up some cupcakes on his way home from work instead of having to go out on Saturday morning. These aren’t just any cupcakes, they are a decadent treat with such flavors as Chocolate Salted Caramel, Coconut Cherry Blossom, Caramel Nut Sundae, Mango Sunburst, Chocolate Peanut Butter…. 

If anyone that came to the party doesn’t remember the Coconut Cherry Blossom cupcake, that’s because my sweet hubby couldn’t resist. That cupcake is now just a distant memory.

Meanwhile, my husband, Brian, had come up with a bunch of trivia questions related to our birthday boy.  He also hit the jackpot over at Sodahead   with a list of 50 “this or that” questions. Here is just a partial listing.

1. Math or English?
2. Summer or Winter?
3. Morning or Night?
4. Full House or Family Matters?
5. Tea or Coffee?
6. Harry Potter or Lord of The Rings?
7. Black or White?
8. Dogs or Cats?
9. McDonalds or Burger King?
10. Cake or Pie?
11. Chocolate or Vanilla?
12. Jocks or Nerds?
13. Cable or Internet?
14. MySpace or Facebook?
15. The Simpsons or Family Guy?
16. Coke or Pepsi?
17. Batman or Superman?

Want more?  Also found a bunch over at Hubpages. So with a bunch of “this or that” questions and personal trivia questions we had the start of a great game that everyone could participate in.

Saturday, party day

Appetizers were made in the morning and son #3 was assigned the task of blowing up balloons.

Didn’t have a prize for the winner of the trivia game. So headed down to the workshop. You’ll see my “Winner of Bill” trivia prize in a minute.

The party turned out great! Bill never had a clue that we were going to celebrate his birthday and the weather couldn’t have been more perfect.

 All had fun with the Giant Jenga.  Believe it or not, the stack didn’t fall on that turn.  Jenga was made with 72, 10 1/2 inch lengths of 2×4’s sanded on the ends.

 

As you can probably tell, this was not a staged dinner plate. My son Nathan, took a picture of his plate because it was so colorful…I had him send it to me.

The cupcakes were delish as promised. Ended up cutting most of them in halves or fourths so everybody could get a taste of more than one.

The tiered stand was a Christmas present from the kids a few years ago. An upside down wine glass forms the base followed by a glass plate, a glass candlestick and a smaller glass plate, all glued together. Perfect for cupcakes!

All had fun with the birthday boy heads.

And the winner of the Bill trivia went home with this stunning block of wood.  A cartoon character with Bill’s head modpodged on the front and a bill, with a picture of Bill with a bill on the back. (It’s a Bill, bill, bill)

Hope I gave you some ideas for your next celebration.

Happy Birthday Bill!

Shared at Your Turn to Shine, Think and Make Thursday, Handmade Hangout Party, My repurposed Life,

Link Party Palooza, Show me Saturday, DIY Sunday Showcase, Silver Pennies Sundays,

That Diy Party, Metamorphosis Monday, Mod Mix Monday, Wow us Wednesdays,