Happy 65th Birthday, Michele/Mom/Mimi!

Larry had the idea about a year ago to throw a surprise party for my mom since she will turn 65 this May!  Dad and I loved the idea, and we all set about with some preliminary planning--mostly getting a date chosen.  We settled on March 29th since it fell during our Spring Break, was an easy weekend for Larry and Michelle to get away, and was two months before her actual birthday helping the surprise element even more.  We sent out a Save-the-Date evite right after the new year, and so many friends and family members were excited to join in!  Mom LOVES a theme, and has hosted MANY parties with various themes (including Batman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Cubs/Sox, Crayons, Roycemore, 40th Birthday, Roycemore, etc.) since she planned the Faculty Party each August for the Roycemore teachers before they started the new school years!  Our theme was Going to the Movies--Mom loves going to movies with each of us, friends, and now, Jackson.  She loves the snacks, the award shows at the end of each year and re-watching many favorites.  

A friend had an excellent suggestion to ask someone to be in charge of photography, so these pictures are very much thanks to Brandi (website coming soon!!!) with some from our family friend, Ray Narducy, sprinkled in:

My awesome neighbor, Aimee, continues to share her Silhouette machine so I could make this fun banner.

Film strip and ticket napkin rings

This is the cake I wanted to bake, but since we arrived into town about 24 hours before the party, there was no way I could do that secretly!  I made this decoration out of cake-practice materials, and it's even better since Mom can keep it as a memento!

Each rectangular table had two popcorn boxes filled with popcorn kernels with a double-sided card sticking up with a different movie poster on each side.  The movies we included were: "8 Miles," "American Graffiti," "American President," "Big Hero 6," "Breakfast at Tiffany's," "Father of the Bride," "Bridesmaids," "Charade," "Dirty Dancing," "Gone with the Wind," "Legally Blonde," "Little Mermaid," "Love Actually," "Mrs. Doubtfire," "Pretty Woman," "Sabrina," "Singin' in the Rain," "Sleepless in Seattle," "Star Wars," "The Graduate," "The Music Man" and "You've Got Mail."

As a little activity/keepsake, we had the party invitation turned into a puzzle that guests helped put together while also signing a message on the matting which will help frame the puzzle :)

I couldn't believe how well everyone followed our request to arrive early!  We had PLENTY of time to enjoy appetizers and chat before Mom and Dad arrived!

Friends mingling :)

Appetizer table and presents!

Calamari, bruschetta and veggies for appetizers

SURPRISE!!!  She had a little feeling "something" was up, but she never thought of something like this!  We did it!

The party planners with the birthday girl :)

My handsome date!

This little girl was an amazing sport and helped Mimi celebrate all evening!

This girl (and her mama) drove pretty much all day to come in from Indy (there and back on the same day!), which meant SOOO much to us!  Unfortunately, they had to leave early since Jessi didn't feel well :(

 Enjoying dinner and the evening.  Dinner included minestrone soup, salad, family style entrees of chicken piccata, pasta with vodka cream sauce and eggplant parm roll-ups, and dessert choices of tiramisu or spumoni.  Everything was DELICIOUS! 

  Ron Richter provided the music for the evening, and he did a wonderful job!  My parents have been going out to eat and to hear him play music for YEARS!  It only seemed fitting to have the party at the establishment where they come almost every Saturday night and to have Ron play Mom's favorite songs :)

Everyone had SUCH a good time, and Mom was so surprised (more pleasantly than we had thought!).  We didn't get a picture, but we did have favors to complete the evening which were microwave popcorn packets wrapped in cute paper with the saying, "Thanks for POPPIN' by to help Michele celebrate turning 65!"  We were so thankful for everyone that came to help her start celebrating early!