Showing posts with label Surprise birthday party. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Surprise birthday party. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Surprise! It's a Birthday Party!

All right, how many of you have had a birthday party? A real party with a cake and candles to blow out (like this doghouse cake my granddaughter had a few years ago complete with  dog biscuit look-alike cookies) and friends singing happy birthday to you? I hope all of you are nodding and thinking about some special birthday when everything came up smiles and even if there weren't lots of people around, you felt loved and appreciated and didn't mind getting older. 

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!



Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Surprises, Parties and Chocolate Cakes



"Let's face it, a nice, creamy chocolate cake does a lot for a lot of people; it does for me." ~Audrey Hepburn



I've got some serious chocolate lovers among my grandkids. I think they may have taken after their grandmother! My sister has a granddaughter who won't eat chocolate and everytime I hear that I am amazed afresh and think, surely, she just hasn't tried it yet. lol

This chocolate cake looks like it could be my dog, Oscar's cake, doesn't it? Of course, they say chocolate is poisonous to dogs. Do you think it's possible that dogs love us so much they just wanted to come up with a reason to let us have all the chocolate? But the cake was my granddaughter's request and her mother was game to give it a try and did a great job. No, those aren't real dog biscuits. They were some kind of dog biscuit shaped cookies. A great cake anyway. 

It was fun reading all the birthday stories you all sent me or left in comments here. (If you haven't entered the giveaway contest yet, you have five more days to throw your name in the hat. Drawing is next Monday night at midnight EST. Details about the contest are on my website's News and Events Page.) Certain trends showed up in your stories. You like cake - especially chocolate cake. Surprise parties made for memorable birthdays. You loved feeling special on your birthday. And family makes the memories sweeter.

Mary left this in a comment on one of the birthday story posts, but in case you didn't read the comments, here's her story.
"Birthdays are always special in our family - favorite cake & meal & treat. I always had a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, roast chicken & home-made marshmallows - not quite in that order. The birthday person also gets out of chores. After dinner you just walk away from the table. Growing up that was almost the best part of the whole day."

Those home-made marshmallows sound interesting, Mary. I did something like that with my kids too. I still cook their favorite meals and desserts if they can make it home for their birthdays. And I like the idea of the birthday person getting out of chores. Seems that's harder to work out for us older folks. If you could, what chore would you most want to get out of?



Maxie shared this last story about a treasured surprise party.

 I have been blessed with 12 grandkids and now 19 great-grands. How great!  Very well blessed. …  My favorite Birthday would be my 75th. It was also my first ever Surprise Party. My granddaughter and daughter had the house (big) decorated prettier than I've ever seen. This daughter also made my BD cake. So good!  Real fudgey. She got everyone to bring one of my favorite desserts and foods they had ever known me to love. Was absolutely Fantastic." 
  
Birthdays are a great time to feel that extra love and to give that extra love too. Have you ever thrown a surprise party for anyone? Were you ever surprised by a party yourself? 



 Thanks for reading.

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Stories and Grandparents Go Together

  • Grandparents are a family's greatest treasure, the founders of a loving legacy, The greatest storytellers, the keepers of traditions that linger on in cherished memory. Grandparents are the family's strong foundation. Their very special love sets them apart. Through happiness and sorrow, through their special love and caring, grandparents keep a family close at heart. ~author unknown

Thanks to all of you who have been sharing stories about your birthday memories. This is a picture of my aunt Bond who doubled as a grandma for my sisters and me. She made birthdays special the way some of you have been making birthdays special for your children and grandchildren. I'm having such fun reading through your stories and sharing a few of them forward. 

If you haven't entered my Christmas at Harmony Hill Celebration Giveaway yet, you still have plenty of time. Deadline for entering is September 30 at midnight EST. Lots of time to share birthday stories. I can see some of you out there frowning. You're wondering if I have Christmas and birthdays mixed up. Well, it's my birthday month, but my Shaker Christmas book is out, so we're talking birthdays for Christmas or is that Christmas for birthdays? Now I'm the one confused. LOL. 

But I'm not confused about how fun your stories are. Many of you have said your best birthday memory is when somebody surprised you with a birthday party. That's one of my birthday memories too. Also the age fifty has been mentioned often. Guess that's a milestone birthday. It's one of my favorite birthday memories too. I'm like a lot of you. Never really had a birthday party the way we think about parties when I was a kid. After I got married, we had family dinners or I went out to lunch with my mom and sisters, but no party party with guests and candles on cakes. But then the year I turned fifty, my church family threw a surprise party for me after a church service. And it was a surprise! They had a black cake and decorations and sang happy birthday. The whole bit. And it was such fun. Lots of laughter. And black teeth! That black icing on the cake turned everybody's lips and teeth black. All I can say is that it's good that was a few years before everybody started carrying phones around and putting photos out on Facebook at the click of a button. Black teeth aren't all that attractive, but I did so appreciate my church friends going to that trouble for me. 

Today is also Grandparents Day. Of course, most loving grandparents think it's Grandparents Day any time the grandkids can come over for a visit. So here are a couple of birthday stories that include the grandkids. 

First up is Jim telling about his grandson. 
My oldest Grandson (now 16!) was very excited about his birthday (3rd I think). We were ready to light the candles and sing. He started blowing out the candles as fast as I could light them. I finally got them all lit at once and he blew them out and as soon as he could take a breath shouted again! Again! Again! So we lit them again and he blew them out. We repeated the light-blow-again, again, again thing several times. We ask if he didn’t want to cut the cake and eat it---No! again! Again! Again! So repeated it a few more times and this time asked if he wanted to open presents---No! again! Again! Again! We final had to tell him the stick lighter had run out of gas (a small fib since what had really run out was the skin on my thumb.  Now his little brother is 4. He doesn’t say again, again, again because all of us do it for him. He just bows out every candle he finds and then says light it! He also helps everyone else on their birthday whether they want help or not.


The idea that no one is perfect is a view commonly held by people with no grandchildren. ~Doug Larson


Gayle also shared her birthday memories with us - first one from when she was a kid and then another years later.
   My best birthday present came two days late when I turned 10. My brother was born, which was a double blessing because I had asked for a baby brother for my birthday. Little did I know the responsibility my Mom would heap on me as the big sister. As children we were never close--I was the oldest he was the youngest, but as adults we developed a very special bond. 
 
I think the most fun birthdays were when my grandchildren were younger. They were always so excited to give me my gift and sometimes didn't wait for me to open it before they were telling me what they had bought me.
 
Grandparents are a delightful blend of laughter, caring deeds, wonderful stories and Love. ~author unknown

On the seventh day God rested. His grandchildren must have been out of town. ~ Gene Perret


Thanks for reading. Remember leave a comment with a way to contact you here on my blog to enter the contest or send me an e-mail from my website. Details about the contest prizes, etc. are on the News and Events Page on my website.