I'm celebrating my birthday month all through September by having a birthday giveaway. You can check out details on my blog post, September Means Birthday Giveaway or at my website events page. Easy to enter and I think you'll like the prizes. Three winners too.
But on to the parties. I invited readers to share birthday stories and I'm working through the e-mails reading them all. My surgery last week has slowed me down a little so if I haven't responded to your e-mail, be patient. I will. Meanwhile here are a few stories about parties I hope you'll enjoy.
Missy's Spooky Halloween Birthday Party
A birthday story.
Well... My birthday is in October. So every year my mom and nana would throw me
a Halloween themed birthday party at a dance studio they worked at. We had the
works: Carnival room, including cake walk, costume contest, etc. We had a
fortune teller. We had a face panting and spray on hair dye room. And we
had, of course, a "Haunted House". The haunted house was the locker
room. Bowls were set on tables that were filled with grapes, spaghetti noodles,
etc, and mixed with creams and water to feel like guts and brains. Parents
dressed in scary costumes and waited to scare you. The decorations were hung.
Two people went in at a time. I went in with my girlfriend. We walked in. A
werewolf jumped out of a closet. We laughed and continued on. We made it to the
table, where we grossed ourselves out by feeling the gooey mess. We were
laughing so hard we didn't see anyone behind the table. Hands shot out and
grabbed our ankles and we tumbled to the floor. Ouch. Not a second after we hit
the floor did a door bang open right beside us. A witch jumped out. The lights
were dim, only the glowing decorations giving any light, but the witch's
costume was intense. Scary good makeup. My friend and I shrieked and jumped up,
our trip to the floor forgotten. We raced to the door, the witch on our tails.
Slamming the door behind us, we started laughing. Later that night, after
most everyone had left, we were talking to one of the parents, who had admitted
to being the one to pull us to the floor. We asked if she knew who had dressed
up as the witch. She said, what witch? My friend and I thought she was kidding.
So we asked around. No one admitted to seeing a witch that wasn't one of the
kids, and none of the kids had put as much effect into their costume as the one
in the dressing room. I asked my mom and nana. They said they didn't ask anyone
to dress up as a witch. To this day, I still
have no idea who that freaking witch was that scared the holy heck out of me
and my friend.
Okay, Missy, I think I'd start celebrating my birthday in July!!! Now to a less scary party.
Susan's Aunt Hattie's Birthday Party
For my great aunt
Hattie's 95th birthday, we decided to throw her a big party and invite all of
her friends and family. We used the town fire hall and all of the
attendees brought food. At 95, Aunt Hattie was still sharp as a tack, out in
her garden planting the flowers that she loved and always busy socializing with
people. About 75 people were able to attend and boy, was she surprised! She had a great time chatting with everyone and eating a little of
everything. The following year, her health declined and she had to move
to an assisted living home. I'm so glad we were able to give her this
party because it gave us a nice way to remember her in her prime and having
fun!
You know sometimes the best parties are for someone else. We celebrate with one of our church members every year. This year she was 98. I'm looking forward to celebrating 100 with her. Some of you might remember that I had an Aunt Hattie in my Heart of Hollyhill books. Aunt Hattie could pray down the power. Loved it when she started praying in my stories. Okay, one more party story. This one is when a couple attending a surprise party got a surprise themselves. LOL.
Debbie's Oops Birthday Story
My favorite birthday story isn’t about my birthday, but a surprise
birthday for a friend. This was years and years ago and his wife invited
us and told me all the details…my husband and I showed up at his parents' house
for the party. They let us in and took us to their den and we sat and
talked for a little bit and then they awkwardly said, we have to leave to to go
Raymond’s party. Well, we died of embarrassment because we thought
the party was at his parents' house not His house!!!! We meekly laughed
and left red-faced and proceeded to the right house for the party. I know
it was just as awkward for his parents, because I’m sure they were sitting
there thinking, why are they here? What do we do to get rid of them? Funny!!!
Isn't it good how we can laugh at ourselves and embarrassments can turn into great stories? Thanks so much for sharing with us, Debbie, Susan, and Missy. Who knows what surprising stories I'll find in the rest of the messages I'm getting? Thanks so much for joining in my birthday fun!
Happy birthday month Miss Ann! I pray God will not take you away from us just because of the "c" word. Notice I made it a small c because I think very little of it. I pray God will give you a big letter "C" meaning Cure because you have blessed us with the people in your books. I don't have many birthday stories. Not big stories like some of your other readers. Although my grandfather's 100th birthday was a big one, especially when he got to try to put on his WWI army jacket! My favorite birthday was a trip in the mountains of Idaho where we lived when I turned 12. Being an army brat we lived many places. On that birthday my father took us up higher in the mountains to a beautiful stream to "camp" in style in a real mountain cabin. The beauty is still so real to me. Thank you for always asking after us readers too.
ReplyDeleteA 100th birthday is something to celebrate. So glad you have good birthday memories. That birthday trip to a mountain cabin sounds lovely. Isn't it great how we can let those good memories settle down in our memories and stay there ready to slide back out whenever we need to have a loving touch of family. I appreciate your sweet prayer for me. I do pray the Lord will give me that big "C" word for cured and I am confident He will and that I will have more tomorrows to write more stories. Have you already entered my giveaway, Karen? If so, thanks, but if you haven't and want to, you'll have to leave me a way to contact you, either by leaving your e-mail or by telling me another way to contact you, perhaps FB. Thanks. So nice of you to visit Jocie at her blog too. It's very encouraging to Jocie. :)
DeleteHappy Birthday Ann and I hope I get the chance to win one of you birthday prizes!!! May you have many more!!! Mom's are really important in all kinds of ways!!!
ReplyDeleteForgot to leave my contact info: 1985 La Rue Avenue, Deltona, Florida, 32725. Email: cavallofrances@yahoo.com too. Thanks again for the opportunity to win!!!
ReplyDeleteNow I will share with you a special birthday memory of mine:
Iwas going to be 18 years old, a sort of rite of passage for my family into adulthood, even though I had just given birth to a beautiful son, 6 months before, I was still her baby and she told me that on that night and told me that would never change no matter how many years passed! My Mom took me out to dinner, my sister babysat, and while we had a nice meal together, she presented me with a beautiful gold name ring. It was so beautiful and also a moment that I would never forget between me and my Mom! It is especially in my heart now, as we had to put my Mom in a nursing home last year and she has Advanced Stage of Alzheimers and Dementia and at times cannot remember my name or who I am!!! Last year, she broke her left femur and she forgot us all completely for about 6 months!!!
That is a special memory, Frances, and one to be treasured. So you can know that your mother still loves you, since she promised that would never change, even though the dementia has put a cloud in her mind that keeps her from being able to say it anymore. Thanks for sharing your story.
DeleteHappy Birthday!! :)
ReplyDeleteMy mom, before she got really sick, used to give all of us birthday dinners. We got to choose what to eat. My sis was born in August, but always insisted on potato soup. One year, I asked for a buffet...veggie soup, meatloaf, spaghetti, I'm sure something else, but she insisted I pick just one. ;)
She also let us pick our cake. Mine was always naked chocolate cake. My son always picked pumpkin pie.
pmettert@yahoo.com
You wanted a Mom's Buffet dinner, didn't you, Ann? :) I don't blame you. It all sounds good. Your sister must have loved that potato soup. But tell me about this "naked" chocolate cake. Are you saying no frosting? Guess that would have been easy. My favorite used to be Chess pie or cherry cheesecake, but now I like Angel Food cake. It's usually "naked" too, but I would love it with that yummy 7 minute frosting, but nobody wants to make that these days.
DeleteMy 11th birthday was the most memorable. My mother, a minister's daughter, only had one birthday party in her childhood, so she was determined that her 3 kids would have plenty of celebrations. For this one, she had planned a sugaring-off party on a local farm, where there would be a hayride and sampling of the hot maple syrup poured on snow and cooled to a taffy consistency. It was going to be great, but I caught mumps the day before. My mom was undaunted. She hired a lady to stay with me and had my friends leave the birthday presents at our house for me to open, then she and my dad took my sister and brother and the party guests to the farm as planned. Needless to say, I felt sorry for myself, but I was immensely cheered as I opened the presents. My favorite was THE SECRET OF THE OLD CLOCK, my very first mystery. I was hooked on Nancy Drew from that night on and afterward, Agatha Christie, Conan Doyle, etc. etc. It's why I write mysteries today. Happy Birthday, Ann! Ellen Kennedy, eekmystery@hotmail.com
ReplyDeleteEllen, I love the image of pouring the hot syrup on the snow to cool it down. That made for sweet "snowballs." I'm sure you did feel very sorry for yourself. Missing your party while everybody else was having fun. But isn't it funny how good things are always showing up even in what we think are the worst of times? And now you're a mystery writer. I loved those mysteries when I was a kid too, and the first book I wrote as a kid was a mystery inspired by Hardy Boy books. Fun times. Thanks for stopping by with a comment. I entered you in the drawing.
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