Last year my Grandpa Paul turned 75 years old! My family and I decided to throw him a huge surprise party for the occasion. Not only was the party itself a surprise, but we also had all his out-of-state kids and most out-of-state grandkids fly in to surprise him just by being here for him! This was the first time in 20 years that all 7 of his kids were in the same place, at the same time together! It was so awesome and I'm so grateful to all those who helped make it possible.
Now since this party had a huge guest list we needed large space for it. Also, we had a large span of ages at this party-from babies an kids (all the great-grandkids had to be there), teenagers, young adults, and all the way up to 75 year old Grandpa! We had to have activities for everyone. We choice a fun bowling alley for this party, there was something there for everyone. They had a big private room that we decorated and had the surprise in. It was perfect for the surprising of Grandpa and for gifts and all the fun party action in. The little kids could go play all the arcade games when they got bored. The adults had plenty of pitchers of beer. We had the private room for two hours, then we all did a few games of bowling. Then after bowling, the adults went to the bar/lounge area of the bowling alley for some awesome birthday karaoke! It was perfect, something for every age and size!
DRESS UP TIME
This was a fun and easy party theme to dress up for! We just told everyone to dress like a rock star or to at least wear their favorite concert or band t-shirt. Even those people that normally would never dress up for a party got in the spirit. I picked up a Pink Floyd t-shirt for my Grandpa so he'd have something to wear when he got there too.
ROCK N' ROLL TABLE CENTERPEICES
I made different guitars with my Cricut paper cutter and glued them on sticks and put them in mason jars full of candy. I also made some 'Rock On' and 'Rock n Roll' signs to put on sticks in jars too.
I put packs of Pop Rocks Candy all the tables too for décor and a yummy treat. Get it: Pop ROCKS (like rock n' roll....)
And Rock candy in mason jars also. Get it: ROCK candy.... I tried to tie the Rock n' Roll into my candy and treats where I could. I had glow stick necklaces all over the tables too for the kids (and most of the adults) to wear.
CUPCAKES
These were delicious and adorable! I barely got a picture of them before we ate them all! I love my cake lady, she's amazing! She did Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd (Darkside of the Moon), guitars, and a record with the '75' in the middle on top of the cupcakes. They turned out great!
My cakes are made by Sprinklebelle Cakes, she's in West Jordan, UT. Check out here webpage here: http://sprinklebellecakes.com/
And check out some of her other cakes she has made for my parties here:
Teddy Bear Picnic Cake
Very Hungry Caterpillar Cake
Pink Lemonade Cake
THE BIG SURPRISE!!
Grandpa was VERY surprised when he walked in the room! My Aunt Desiree, his youngest daughter, told him she was taking him bowling for his birthday with free passes she got from work. It was a great story and worked out splendidly! However, I'm always a little worried when a big surprise on someone who is getting a little older is in involved...But my grandpa is awesome!
PHOTO BOOTH WALL (AND PHOTO PROPS)
It was very important to us to have a fun way to get lots of photos of everyone. Since so many people came in from out of town and this was also a huge family reunion because it'd been so long since we had all been together in the same place at the same time, we really wanted lots of pictures. I bought a big backdrop of a concert stage from Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Rock-Star-Backdrop-Banner-Background/dp/B004N4XZY2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1424912858&sr=8-1&keywords=concert+photo+background. It was only $10 and everyone loved taking photos in front of it. I also had lots of props for the pictures too. I got rock n' roll sunglasses and blow-up instruments
and microphones. I brought tons of fun hats that I already had from my hat bin (yes, I have a huge bin full of just hats that I use all too often....) I'm so glad we had the photo wall set up because we now have great pictures of us forever.
Grandpa and all 7 of his kids together
Even my baby had her own rock n' roll style t-shirt
Grandpa and some of his Grandkids
We did a little 'Roast' of my Grandpa also where we got up and told funny stories of him. It was really fun and everyone's stories were so different. He opened presents then we headed out to the bowling lanes, and ended the night with some karaoke. It was a great night!
The day following the party my Aunt Desi's good friend who is a photographer came over and took some nice family photos of us. It really was a huge deal that we were all together. My grandpa has 7 kids, 5 of them in Utah, one in Washington and one in New Hampshire. The out-of-towners visit often, but never at the same time. So this was the first time in 20 years they were all together. It was so great to get together for the party and then again for some nice photos the next day without our blue wigs and band t-shirts.
These photos were done by Missy Allen and her husband http://www.photosbytheallens.com/
You can check out some of their other work here.
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