I have mentioned (I think) that I was working on a fun party, but didn't give anymore details. Well, the secret is out and I can give the details now! :-) My dad turned 60 on February 10 and my mom and I decided since his master's degree, 50th birthday, and retirement went without any kind of party, maybe we should do something special this time. We decided since his entire life and first love was football, to have a vintage football theme. We sent out the cutest invitations, but for some reason I couldn't get it to load. :-(
This was such a fun party for so many reasons! It was fun to see so many people we never get to see and fun to decorate! Because we invited so many friends from so many different parts of his life, we wanted to include pictures of him at different stages of life. We had some of him and his brothers as kids, high school yearbooks, football pictures, college pictures, coaching and teaching pictures from each place he has taught, hunting pictures, and pictures of him being a dad and grandfather. I decorated this table with a vinyl tablecloth that looked like a football field and decorated with some fun things I found at Hobby Lobby that will now be in Nicholas' football room/Dad's home office at my parent's house.
For the cake I found a picture on Pinterest and I love how my favorite cake lady, Becky replicated it!
I attempted some chocolate covered strawberry footballs, but they didn't do so well! Ha!
Now, for the fun part...the actual party! My dad is incredibly low key and humble. He hates any attention on him and would not have wanted a party had he known, which is why we made it a surprise. We made it 3.5 weeks before someone mentioned it to him, but we ended up telling him the night before so that he would be over the fact he was having a party before the party. At that point we found out he already knew (which I suspected he did!) Haha! We did, however make the guest list and RSVPs a surprise until the party was over, so there was still a sense of surprise. He had some wonderful surprises that night. His best friend from college came all the way from Dallas! Several coaching friends he hasn't seen in a long time, and several of my parents couple friends came. One of my favorite surprises is that one of his lineman from this past season came and that he sent a letter to my dad earlier in the week via my email. I can never begin to tell you how much that letter meant to us. As a coach's daughter, it means so much to know that players appreciate their coaches and the time they invest in the team and away from their family.
I was busy and didn't take a lot of pictures, but this is my favorite of Pawpaw and his favorite little man!
The next day was his actual birthday and we met for dinner that night. Not my best picture, but good of everyone else.
It was such an honor to host a party for my dad and to see so many people come together to celebrate him and their friendship. I am so grateful that I was given such a wonderful dad. We love you so much!
