Mama's 75th Surprise Party

This is the first table my mother saw when she walked into her surprise party. She loves white and gold and all thing glitter so this was one of her favorite tables. We decided to do an Art of the Table party for her in honor of her and all things she loves or things that remind us of her.

This is my Mom & DAD.



The Glitz and Glamour Table

This table was my favorite and probably reflected my personality more than hers but she does like diamonds and shopping and that is what it represented. The big faux diamond rings on the table seemed to disappear as the night went on. Clearly she is not the only one that likes all things sparkly.

My mother likes her flower gardens and tries to make all things pretty so we added a garden table for her party.
This is my brother David and his family.

This is Patty and my nephew Jon. Girls? Jonny is 24 and single if you need his number follow me on twitter.

My Mother's pride and joy has always been her pool that she worked to have put in years ago. We all have enjoyed it (with exception to my Dad maybe) He doesn't like the upkeep and the bills it creates. Anyway, we added a pool table. It was a fun one. unfortunately this picture was taken before all of the candle lighters were removed. The place we had the party was an old bank, so that is the old vault safe where they stored their money I guess in the background. It is actually the bank where I opened my first bank account.

We had so little time to set up, and never really had the time to get silverware or napkins for most of the tables. The idea for this party came less than a month before her birthday. Never-mind that we've had our whole life to plan for it.

My mother, daughter and I all love pineapples. My mom was the first in line in pineapple infatuation. Naturally we had to have a pineapple table then.


Another pic of the Pineapple table. There is the fruit display in the background. I don't think we have a picture of it. :(

Hmmm, seems I'm a bad influence on the younger generation in our family. This is Adison and Aiden out on the dance floor.

There was a wine table of course. We even put it to use. That's my mom's best friend June and my brother Dan in that photo. June helped get my mom to the party in pretense of taking her out on the town for her birthday. Those purple little balls in the wine bottle bowl were little gourmet M&M's. They looked like grapes only they went with the red wine a lot better than grapes do.

The Friends & Family Shelf & Table

We had more themes than we needed or had tables so we had to improvise with some card tables and had very little time to set up so if we'd had all the time we needed we could have really made this place look great. That is Max (June's husband) dancing with the Birthday girl directly above. The first picture has my future son-in-law Erik dancing with my niece Andrea. Oh, and that's the future bride Angie watching as they dance. All of those pictures were of my Mother's friends and family and they were under glass. Then again, maybe they were supposed to be under glass but I forgot to bring the glass.

This is my cousin Denise's grandson Aiden.

My mom is not that much of a game person really but I thought people might get bored and need something to play with so I set up a game table. The kids liked it anyway.

Blaze & Cory at The Game Table

My mother loves to cook and she also has her favorite stores where she shops. The plates we made with decoupage and a computer. They were supposed to go on the Glitz & Glamour Table as it was supposed to be more about shopping. The bad thing was they looked horrible on the Glitz & Glamour table so I threw some card tables together at the last and added them to a Cooking Table. The place mats were Cooking Magazines opened up. This is my sister-law Patty who was a big help with the party.

This picture of The Beach Table was taken by a guest (my niece, sort of). These last few are all from her camera. Thanks Erin! My mother has always loved the beach (not any more than I do though). She said later that it was the one she wanted to sit at but the seats were already taken.
We've always spent every holiday it seems at my Mom & Dad's house. She is always the one entertaining. So I made a holiday table with each place setting representing a different holiday. Sorry, it is the only pic we had of it. It is a little too dark to see. Now they have a "For Sale" sign in their front yard. I don't think Holidays will ever be the same.
This was at my husband's family's church parish hall. It is about the only place we can rent and still bring in all the food & drinks.
My niece Andrea.

The oreo truffles were made by my niece. (via ) http://bakerella.com/
They didn't last long.

A friend of a friend makes beautiful cakes. She made this wine bottle with the vintage year being the year of my mom's birth. The picture doesn't do it justice. I had her copy a cake she made for my friend Jeanie's birthday. Here's a picture of it. It captures the beauty of it better. The lady's name that makes the cakes is Lori Bruner I think. I can get her number if you want it.