The Grown-Ups Birthday Celebration

Look at these five birthday celebrants---all have their big days within about a three week time span!

Cumulatively their years on the planet total one hundred ninety-three years. Meaning this oddball non-summer birthday host (me) has to put together an out-of-this-world party! Though I love Pinterest, I was determined to do this without that app.

Each year I try to think up a fun theme for the party and this year my inspiration came from a "find" at TJMaxx - a clearance robot party pack complete with 3D glasses, invitations and blank thank you cards. A matching robot with stationery (inside its body) was purchased to use as a table decoration.

This sure made decorating a snap!  With the blank thank you cards I used Target's sticker burlap letters to make a "Happy Birthday" swag.

But most fun of all?  Using recycled boxes, bottle caps and more I put together a robot to house little gifts for the birthday celebrants (note the letters on the robot bodies to indicate which robot goes to which birthday person):

Food was simple, too - Lou Malnati's pizza and salad.  The cake was a silent auction chocolate cheesecake from Forrest and John C. (Soooo decadent and yummy; thanks, guys!!!)

It was decorated with Dollar Tree robot stickers.

Thanks to the robot vest from IKEA, pot holders and red bowl from Dollar Tree, and Vera's grabber, the guests were greeted by the birthday robot!

It was a scorcher of a day, thankfully we could all be outside. I filled up a big planter with water and let the Grands go at it before our pizza was delivered.

Thanks, Becky for the special delivery of Gilbert's backyard toys!!

Following our pizza and cake, it was time for some backyard relay games!

And, yes, I made them all participate!!!

It was (hopefully) fun for everyone from one to sixty-two.

Happy Birthday, John, Jed, Kari, Anne and Wes!!

 

The Annual Family Halloween Bash

With 11 in our family now, I really can call it a bash! This year, though, it was a bash with a twist in that a few of the family members didn't know beforehand that this was the party.  They just thought it was a family dinner at the City Nest. No one came in costumes.

Upon arrival, there was a little craft table set up for the kiddos.

Dinner would soon be served.  (Costco to the rescue with a delicious chicken pot pie, apple slices to swirl in a creamy caramel apple dip and a chocolate cake purchased at a church bake sale.)

Meanwhile, hiding in the shower stall was my secret: a costume for me and grocery bags stocked with costumes for everybody!

A black dress with a with hat and striped socks is easy to throw on!

I slipped into the bathroom, donned my costume and came out with the bags.  Cackling. I may or may not of scared my Grands with this raucous cackling.

Glad I saved that pumpkin necklace from teaching days!

I took the three oldest into another room to change into their costumes: KMan into a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (his Dad had his own costume years ago that wore out), Miss M into a Little Witch and Miss E into a Red Fairy.

Laughter and movement could be detected coming from outside our dressing room - the adults had opened their bags of costumes as well as the ones for the two babies. CarMan was an adorable referee and Miss H was a Forest Nymph.

Their parents consisted of a skeleton man,

Pippi, an orange-haired ice cream vendor and a French maid.

Oh, they are the Good Sports, aren't they?

We played Halloween bingo after dinner.  Candy treats for every "Bingo" kept them all interested until the cards were filled!

Then there was story time for the kids. There was chaos.

My witch hat collapsed in the process.

 

We sure had a lot of fun!

It's such a treat to be with our family!

Meant to. But didn't.

 

I meant to do a blog post about the Nelson Sisters going to Branson and how we had so much fun hanging around with fellow tourists (see above) who made us feel young, zippy and vibrant as we went to shows and hung around by the pool.  But I didn't.

 

I meant to do a post about celebrating the 60th birthdays of our great friends, Marny and Tracy, with our other great friends, Mark and Carol. But I didn't.

 

I meant to do yet another post about being inspired by artwork  at ArtPrize in Grand Rapids Michigan. (You really should go next year!!!)   But again, I didn't.

Then I meant to do a post about our fall cabin trip and our annual walk (almost) around the lake. But I didn't.

I also meant to write about a very special wedding we attended not long ago where there was a lot of sweetness and bubble blowing. But again I didn't reach my intention. 

Add to the list of meaning to, but didn't: the trip to and tour of the classic Marshall Field's on State Street with my sister's book club after reading the book What the Lady Wants by Renee Rosen. Shown above: the group and the stunning Tiffany Dome.

I also meant to write about the fun we had at our recent alma mater Homecoming 2015. At 

which we were joined by our family in a crazy Photo Booth session. But I didn't!

What about that SCH Gala we went to that we referred to as a Prom for grown ups? Nope, didn't blog about that either.

 

 

 

With all these missed blogging opportunities, I resolve I am absolutely positively committed to writing about our wacky family Halloween party that happened already. Nine days before the Real Deal. In which glitter, Mylar strands of orange and hot pink and every toy in the place ended up on the floor and one certain Turtle decided to add his own "deposit" to the scent of the Costco pot pie baking in the oven.  At least he meant to and DID IT!!

First Attempt

Years ago, my great friend Carol introduced me to something I had never heard of before:

 

The Fairy Garden!

 

 

I was visiting her in Maine and we had an outing to the lovely Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. (Nice to be a member of the Chicago Botanic Gardens which allowed me free entry to this garden as well!)

 

We walked past the Pinecone Sculpture trail and along the Shoreland Trail and there, tucked away in the woods, were little fairy houses made completely from the findings

of the forest floor.  Who made these?  Folks wee and small and those with imaginations that never quite grew up...and I vowed that someday I would make a fairy house, too.

 

See?  Smack dab in the middle of this map?

This vow was made even before Grandchildren entered the picture.  And last week, it was time to gather up Miss E and Miss M, head out to the woods near our cabin in the North Woods and summon that imagination and create an inviting home for a Yooper Fairy!

Easy to find fairy fixin's in the woods:  birch bark, moss, twigs and rocks.

We decided to make a little camp for our fairies between two tree trunks...and of course we needed to make a path so these fairies could go back and forth for regular visits.

Miss M found her calling as a rock gatherer.

Here is my fairy house.  A little hole in the ground was carved out with a stick, and a flat-top rock was placed over that hole.  On top of the rock were bark pieces and five shells -

Miss E, the scavenger, raided them from our neighbor's sand supply (Sorry, Nordlunds and Anderson's).  Pine cones and moss were added as landscaping.



A couple of tiny purple and yellow flowers were added to the shrubbery.

Meanwhile, the neighborhood was expanding...



 

Miss E was creating her own world as well.  She stacked rocks on top of rocks

to create her tiny dwelling, then placed rotting forest bark as a roof on top of these rocks.

Because of its larger-than-mine size, I think this is going to be the pace for larger

groups to gather to socialize - more fluttering wing room!!

 



 

 

We ended up with a lot of extra birch bark and pine cones, so we did some

additional landscaping and added a "barking" lot - ha!



 

 

It's funny how these fairies work...both of us were just sure things were happening in this

little clearing that we made for our little winged sprites as we stepped away.

Like a rock that was white turning into a rounded gray stone....like a flower that was moved to a doorway from a moss bush...like a piece of bark shifting its position...like a pine cone

separating from its group.

 

Let us never forget the magic of childhood.  Or fairy power!

 

A Very Hairy Birthday to You!

 

Kari, John, Wes, Anne, Jed

Yes, it's that time of year once again.  The five adults (not me) in our family all celebrate their birthdays within about a three week time span. Our usual routine is to celebrate them all together while on vacation at our cabin in the North Woods of the Upper Peninsula in Michigan.  I come up with a goofy theme, prepare accordingly and then we have our bash.

 

But this year we had a couple of twists in the celebrating: the births of two more kiddos and the passing of our Patriarch who also liked to celebrate with us.  The time to have the party was uncertain...but certainly our time together would be more "hairy" in the jargon of past years referring to chaotic times.  This got me to thinking of the theme

"It's Getting Hairy Around Here!"

and I was off and running with the use of moustaches to represent the hairy part.
 





Moustaches, headbands, treat bags, stamps, stickers, head coverings..

So I headed out to Hobby Lobby, Dollar Tree, thrift stores and my own supply cabinet and got busy.  I packed a bag full of these items and waited.  And waited. And waited a bit more until we headed up North with the family as we gathered to have a graveside service for Elder. If the

opportunity came, I was set to do the first EVER combined birthday party as a

Surprise Party!

And for the first time, it would include most of the siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews!

The food would be the dinner planned by Renee - our family "Foodie" who makes everything

soooo good.

With the moustache gift wrap and napkins from my bag, the table décor took on a party feel!.

Two cakes for 23 people seemed about right.  One was for the younger kids "UnBirthday" Party
and the other I brought along with candy and popcorn.

We lucked out with weather that allowed us dining el fresco!

Once the eating was taken care of, it was time for the group to come on over to the

Woodsy Photo Booth.

All those props came out of my pre-packed party bag.  I hung a blue table cloth from a clothesline, pulled up a bench and we were ready to go.  I used my cell phone to take the pictures...it was a snap!

Miss E and Papa

 

MeMo with the Grands

Who is this Moustached Miss? Our youngest party goer, Miss H!

Two birthday celebrants with three googly-eyed girls!

Two more birthday celebrants with a uni-browed baby and a son who's lookin' for gold!

Oldest Sister and F

Younger Brother and family

 Youngest Sister and family


Every party could use a blindfold and challenge, right? Miss M and cousin L made this
"Melody" person for us to "pin" moustaches on her face. (They named her.)

Miss E and Miss M loved this game!

Finished the game with all 23 moustaches in place.  Poor Melody!

 

 

Here's our gang no longer in disguise.  Thanks, one and all, for going along with this party-planner --- I know you were good sports!

 

And, Happy Birthday to EVERYBODY!!