My family gathered over Veteran's Day weekend to celebrate a huge milestone: Grandpa's 90th birthday. A couple months ago my cousin Kelley asked if I'd like to help plan an open house with her. Of course I was happy to help out. So glad she asked me!
Grandpa is a WWII veteran, and his birthday happens to be on Veteran's Day. And as if that's not already enough to celebrate, my grandparents' wedding anniversary (#64) is also on the same day. So this holiday is a huge deal in our family.
We headed across the mountains on Saturday. Aunt Cynthia was already at the house, and my mom and sister showed up shortly after we did. We went into full party prep mode: Cynthia did a great job with the cleaning, Laura kept the kids entertained (probably the single most important job), Chris installed some decals that I'd cut, and Mom and Cami helped me hang banners/streamers/balloons and put the food and cake tables together. We made a great team and within a few hours, the house looked ready for a party.
Sunday morning, I iced 120 cupcakes with homemade cream cheese buttercream. Aunts, uncles and cousins began to arrive... the food table began to fill up, Kelley put several gorgeous floral arrangements together, the little ones put on the special Mohar shirts I made for them, and before we knew it our first guests were showing up.
We put a makeshift photo booth together, because we wanted to make sure to get photos of every guest. I made speech bubbles (vinyl is awesome) for people to hold. The pictures were a lot of fun and I'm glad we snagged people as they came in... with how crowded the party was, I don't think we would have gotten pictures of everyone.
Over the next few hours, the house filled up with over 100 guests! It was insane. I'm always happy to see everyone, but I was most excited to see Amy and Maile, my second cousins. I've always known of them, but never actually knew them, if that makes sense. A couple years ago Amy and I became Facebook friends and started reading each other's blogs. So I was thrilled that they made it to the party and I look forward to spending more time with them in the future.
A couple hours into the party, we all gathered to sing Happy Birthday and Grandpa blew out the candles. I contemplated lighting 90 candles... that would have been a sight :)
Grandpa had the best time at his party. I was happy to see so many people come to wish him well. Happy Birthday, Grandpa. It's a wonderful life! We all love you!
1 comment:
It was fun to see you, and you guys did a great job!!! I've always loved Uncle Norman. I don't know what it is about him, but I always felt cozy inside when he was around. And his current beard is so dashing! What a lucky family to have him as the patriarch.
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