Birthday Surprise

Papa Bill turned the big 6-0 in March and I couldn't let this birthday pass without doing something fun! So even though he specifically told us he didn't want a big to-do (including a surprise party) I chose to ignore his request and threw him a surprise party anyway. Normally, I would have started the preparations a month in advance but time slipped away from be (a little one can do that to you) and before I knew it, his birthday was only 10 days away. I enlisted the help of my mom and siblings and together we concocted a plan.

Stephen was in charge of keeping my dad "busy" so he wouldn't suspect anything was up while my mom was MIA all day. He chose to enlist my dad's help in purchasing and putting together a new entertainment center. And if that didn't take long enough he was ready to finish painting the ceiling in his new condo. Nothing like a day of labor to get you ready for a surprise!

My mom was in charge of the food and spent the day before at my house baking and cooking up a storm. I made some decorations for the big event. We were on a pretty tight budget so I printed up a bunch of pictures of my dad throughout the years and strung them on a clothesline for the guests to look at.

And then I bought some cheap centerpieces from Dollar Tree, along with a couple banners, and added some vinyl to personalize them.

Since my dad LOVES bubblegum, I picked the theme "60 Blows" and filled the center pieces with bubblegum and blow pops.

It wasn't fancy but I think they turned out pretty well. 

We had originally planned for the Bishop to ask my dad to meet him at the church for something. But when the Bishop asked, my dad replied that he couldn't because he had a birthday thing with my mom (she had told him she was taking him out to dinner so he wouldn't make any other plans.) Well, that backfired on us! So we came up with an idea to have Kevin breakdown outside of the building and call my dad for a jump. He didn't suspect anything until he came inside the building and my mom pushed him towards the cultural hall. He wasn't happy....

Or at least he was trying to make us THINK he wasn't happy. But he really did enjoy himself. 

I was a little (or should I say REALLY) disappointed with my extended family's participation when it came time to play cards. I didn't want this to be a typical "family get-together" so I had purposefully set up the round tables because I wanted to play a tournament with my dad's favorite card game, Presidents (also known as Scum). I brought prizes and everything and I was really hoping that there wouldn't be any party poopers since this was my dad's 60th Party. However, my dad's siblings snuck out one by one until there was no one left. This ruined the game because people were supposed to move up a table or down a table depending on their placement. So after the first round everyone else started to leave and by 8:30pm the party was over. All of my efforts were for not, but at least my dad still had a good time. My Clark Griswald persona came out a little bit but my sweet hubby was there to push him back in. 

I was happy that so many people came to celebrate with my dad...I know that meant a lot to him. And even though my dad's family snuck out (you know who you are ;-p) I am glad they came to support their brother!