So, if you didn’t already know, August is a pretty big month
for the Hansen family. Both of our
birthdays are in August, as well as my sister’s and mother-in-law’s birthdays
and my parent’s anniversary. Not to mention, both Mike (my brother-in-law) and
Melanie’s (Jeremy’s sister) birthdays are the first week in September. All of
this craziness occurs in just one month. Usually, we combine my, Suzi and
Jeremy’s birthdays together because they are within 2 weeks. However, this year
was Jeremy’s 30th birthday – it’s a big one, so he got his very own
party. If you also didn’t already know, Suzi and I like to throw theme parties.
Her birthday happens to be the day after mine and we have celebrated together
for as long as I can remember. We used to hate it (i.e. – Suzi and Elizabeth as
middle-schoolers), but now we LOVE it because we get to do it together and act
like we are in middle school again because it’s our birthdays and we can do
what we want, right? Anyway, this year, Suzi and I decided to do a Rollin’-in-the-hay
party. I’ve got to admit, Suzi did most of the legwork on this one. She did
some research online and purchased all of the decorations and I loved them all
– especially the cowhide balloons, which inspired the cake I made. We had a
FANTASTIC time listening to country music, drinking some cactus coolers and
hanging out with our good friends. I couldn’t have asked for a better 29th
(yikes!!) birthday, or for a better friend to share my birthday with…
So, since it was Jeremy’s 30th birthday, I knew I
wanted to something extraordinary for him because well, he’s an amazing
husband, a great friend/son/brother/son-in-law/brother-in-law/therapist…and
dang-it he deserves it! So while we were in Montana over Christmas, his mom and
I began conspiring about a surprise visit for Jeremy’s birthday. This became a
little tricky because we were leaving for the cruise the week after his
birthday, but in the end, it worked out perfectly. There are positives from
working for the same company, for instance, when you want to surprise your
husband with an extra week off of work, it’s quite easy to call the business
office to get him coverage, call the owner to get him up-to-date, call his
secretary and bribe her to keep things under-wrap at the office yada yada
yada…I totally thought that he knew what was going on, probably because I’m a
terrible liar and when he straight-faced asked me (ON MY BIRTHDAY) when his
parents were coming in I almost had a stroke right there at the dinner table.
Anyway, apparently he had no clue because when he came home from work and his
dad yelled from the backyard “Hey, what’s a guy got to do to get a cold beer
around here”, he almost fell down the stairs. He also was completely shocked to
hear that I got him and extra week off of work, meaning that he not only had
one week, but TWO weeks off of work (the cruise, remember?). The surprises continued when the next day we
went out to dinner (and I have no idea how he didn’t notice that we were all
wearing white), then headed to O’Sullivan’s in Carlsbad for a few drinks and
all of our friends were there to surprise him for a P-Diddy-Inspired White
Party.
Ok, so I am in no way an expert on throwing parties, but I
(or we, if you include Suzi) have a great time doing it. So I thought that I
would include a few tips on throwing a theme-party:
·
Plan Ahead.
Not gonna lie, I’m terrible at this.
I’m good at coming up with ideas for these parties, but Suzi totally got my
butt in gear this year to get things done. Come up with your idea early,
because it’s a lot harder to find everything that you need the day before a
party. Also, if your theme requires that
people dress up, they are going to need some time to prepare, or in Jeremy’s
case, to make a trip to goodwill.
·
Go to goodwill.
This place is awesome for costume
ideas!
·
Google is your best friend.
Suzi found all of
the decorations at one place, which is awesome. But, it doesn’t always happen
that way. I googled “cowboy party” to find inspirations for food and extra
decorations. Unfortunately, most of what I found was for a little boy’s party,
but still, I got ideas.
·
Tell your friends they are not allowed to come
in unless they are dressed up.
It’s really true that you have more fun while
dressed like an idiot, I don’t know why, but I know it’s true.
·
It goes beyond just decorations.
It’s a lot
about the decorations, but it’s the food, the music, the costumes. It just adds
to it. Of course, the best part is the people there, but we are talking
logistics here, right?
·
Make your own cake.
Cupcakes also go over really well
and are crazy-easy to decorate. Again, google will provide you with tons of
easy cake or cupcake decorating ideas.
·
This sounds expensive, but it’s not really.
We
certainly cannot afford to supply dinner and drinks for everyone. So, we make
it a BYOB event -even though we really don’t have to even say it, our friends
are awesome and there’s always a TON of “adult beverages” left over- but we
still make sure to have some staples and what we want on-hand. We also did a
“signature drink” for the cowboy party (Cactuc Coolers, get it?) that got
everyone started. I also usually specify in the evite to eat dinner before hand
because while there will be appetizers, we all need a full stomach before
getting too crazy. Appetizers are easy, and again, usually our friends bring a
ton of stuff over because, you guessed it, they rock. Anyway, Suzi made buffalo
chicken dip, I did pigs-in-a-blanket, we did the usual chips and dip, but it
all was relatable to the theme. My favorite go-to for a party is Subway foot
longs cut into individual slices – co cheap, so easy, and soooo good.
·
It’s not essential, but it’s definitely fun to
have an activity that relates.
This year we played horseshoes in the backyard.
We didn’t buy a set (though it might have been easier that way haha), Suzi got
some actual horseshoes from a friend at work and Jeremy got stakes from home
depot and make a backstop. We did the
Golf Pros and Tennis Hoes party last year and played table tennis. Again, not
essential, but still fun.
Anyway, that’s pretty much how we prepare. Hope that helps
you plan your next shindig!
Love, Birdie
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