Celebrating Mom's 80th Birthday!

Due to both of my WA brothers' families and my family having different Spring Breaks this year, we realized a few week ago that our three families will not be in a town for several weeks starting in a few days.  As a result, we would miss celebrating my mom's 80th birthday together which was not a good thing--especially since this is such a milestone birthday.  As a result, we compared our calendars and decided to celebrate it 1.5 weeks early at Chris' house yesterday.  After inviting Brent to join us, we found out that both he and Susie would be making the drive out from Montana as the party coincided with Susie's Spring Break.  This was such a bonus as all four children would be with my mom to celebrate.  Since parties are not my dad's forte, we did not include him in any of the planning.  He had zero responsibilities with the exception of showing up which is kind of ridiculous since it's HIS wife's 80th birthday.  However, this turned out to be a blessing as he ended up in the ER on Friday night and was admitted into the hospital and didn't get released until Sunday morning.  Brent was able to help my mom with all of the shuttling back and forth to the hospital and they decided to just leave him at home in bed instead of dragging him to the party since he had no energy or appetite and still wasn't feeling well.  This turned out to be best thing for all of us as Brent was able to drive my mom to Port Orchard and back and allowed all of us to share a relaxing, wonderful evening celebrating my mom without my dad chomping at the bit to go home.

I offered to provide the decorations for the entire party and chose to decorate in the same color theme as Lia's 14th birthday party.  Since I had just hosted a second party for her two nights earlier for her cross country friends (who she didn't want to mix with her Shaw Road friends the previous weekend), I was able to use the same balloons in addition to all of the decorations.  Natalee baked a delicious salmon and Rebecca and I brought some side dishes to help her complete the meal. I also made my chocolate cake from scratch with chocolate buttercream frosting for the dessert.  We spent a wonderful evening together eating and opening gifts.  My mom was so touched that she even got choked up a few times.  Although I hate the fact that she is turning 80 years old as I wish that she would stay 60 forever, I am so grateful that we found an evening in our busy schedules to celebrate the amazing wife, mother, and grandmother that she has been to us all!

Natalee's amazingly new and LONG table that I decorated in pink, gold, and rose gold for the party.  It really looked quite festive when it was all done.

 The center piece of the table complete with the cake, confetti, ornaments, candy, and framed pictures of my mom and dad.

A close-up of the cake complete with gold sprinkles and a "Happy 80th Birthday" cake topper that I found online.

Since my mom couldn't think of any gift suggestions for us this year, we all just thought of our own ideas for presents.  I decided to gift her items that would go with the party theme including a pink rose corsage with a gold bow and a rose gold tiara and sash that says, "80 and Fabulous."  Since my mom is such a practical woman, she never receives gifts like this and it was fun to spoil her!

Mother and daughter.

My mom and all of her tall children.

Opening up a gift with Lia and Vivi looking on.

My mom with 8 of her 14 grandchildren.

Getting ready to blow out her candles!