I came across these pictures today and thought it would be fun to put together a post on how I celebrated my 50th birthday.  This was before my website so the pictures aren’t perfect but I think you still get the feel of all the love and fun we had that night.  What?  Don’t you think it’s okay to throw yourself a birthday party?  I DO!  Just an excuse for family and friends to get together and have fun!

I never could do this without the help of my family! (Me, my sisters and my daughter)

My Mom, Cousin and Aunt!

All dressed up and READY to party!

First thing I decided on were the centerpieces.  I went with things I loved from my childhood.

TV SHOWS CENTERPIECE

With a square paper punch, I took black paper, punched the edges and stapled them together to make it look like film.  Then I found pictures of my favorite shows growing up, printed them and glued them to the paper.  I bought the film reels from Shindigz. I made a platform out of wood for the reels to stand on and painted them black.

I LOVED Doris Day so I made a little drive-in movie.

DRIVE IN MOVIE CENTERPIECE

I used a meal box that looks like a car from M&N Party Store and with painted plywood, a print out of my movie choice I had a little drive in theatre.

Music has always been a big part of my life.  I remember my sisters and I standing in the bathroom in front of the mirror holding either a curling iron or a hairbrush and singing “We are family…I got all my sisters with me….” Awww the memories.

JUTE BOX CENTERPIECE

For this centerpiece I cut 2 pieces of wood.  One to fit between the jute box serving trays and the other one for the base.  I then drilled holes big enough for the wire to fit into along the top and both sides of the wood, painted both pieces of wood black and glued 2 cut out music notes per wire to make them double sided.  Then I stuck the wire into the wood.  Next I sandwiched the two serving trays back to back and glued them to the base.  As an added touch I attached plastic records on both sides.  I bought the records from Shindigz.

I also had tables with nostalgic candy and toys.  Along with black and white checkerboard tablecloths.

Drink Station

Made with carnations!

Nothing has changed.  Just like when I was growing up.  Having a candy cigarette was naughty and fun!

I served the hamburgers and fries in black plastic baskets.  I got the baskets from M&N International Party Supply.  You can’t get black anymore but they do have other colors.

The cook, my wonderful hubby!

We strung lights from the edge of the patio out to the yard.

It’s time for shakes and floats!

I put together a time line of my life.  This was so the guests had something to do while they were waiting for everyone to arrive.  Little did they know that the information they were reading would be important later on in the evening.

Since my little girl could stand I taught her how to pose.  Don’t you think I did a good job?

She was the MC for the evening and directed the games.  OF COURSE we had games!  Only 2, but they were fun.  The first one had to do with the time line and how much they remembered.  Questions were read to them and they were to write down what they thought the answer was.  It was so much fun to see how much they remembered and cared about my life.  The other game was a music game.  I chose 20 songs from my childhood all the way to the 90’s.  They got to hear a small portion of the song and then had to name the song.  Extra points if they new the artist and the year!  This was so much fun!  Of course it was it was about me!  HA!

Dancing with my sweetie.