So, I’ve had just a few things on my plate here lately, the biggest of which (so far) culminated this weekend in Kansas. Wrex’s Grandma Rusk turned 80 years old on Sunday and her only request was to have all of her family in one place…to spend time with them and make new memories and to share with them her love for the Lord and her desire for them to know and love Him, too. Why in the world would ya not show up for that?!
Granny is a ranchy thing, but you’d never know it just by looking at her. She’s always put together – never a hair out of place – yet tough as boot leather. I went with a vintage cowgirl/shabby chic theme for her invitations and party decor. Maybe I say this every time, but HONESTLY, this was my favorite party that I have thrown. It’s probably because the woman for whom I threw it is just out of this world lovely… I can’t say enough good things about her here, so you’ll just have to watch the video I made regarding her life. It sums it up to the best of my abilities. (It’s not perfect but after 36 attempts – not even kidding – to read it without crying, that was the best I could do).
I found the kids some little plastic spurs from Party City that they wore the first night. They. were. ADORABLE! Wryder had already lost his rowel at this point but still cute!
Leading up to the event, our family committed to covering it and everyone invited (Grandma, her 5 kids and spouses, grandkids and great-grandkids) in prayer. It’s hard to get 30+ people in one place at one time and we know that satan hates family and does everything in his power to attempt to divide them and we refused to let him.
That alone was such a rewarding time for our little family…something we plan to continue.
Grandma was so excited the day of the event, she woke up at 5:30am, got around and left even sooner than she needed to – she just couldn’t contain herself!
We gave her the grand tour, as we had all kinds of little surprises planned for her.
The only thing missing was the guest book because a certain 2 year old decided to sign the cover himself. *ahem* Thank goodness Granny thought that made it even cuter…
We bought a bundle of cheap cedar shingles and I painted them all to use as signage as the weekend. We had each person’s name on their respective doors and used them for directions and welcomes, etc.
We wanted to make the birthday girl’s room a little extra special so we had a few little things up our sleeve to do so.
When we sent out the invitations, we also included cards for each family member to fill out regarding their favorite thing about and favorite memory with Granny and asked them to send them back with their RSVP cards. We collected all of those and then tied them to the ends of balloons so when she walked in, she had a room full of love waiting to greet her!
In everyone’s room, we left them a little goodie bag with fresh fruit, water, an itinerary of weekend events, the jelly belly bean-boozled game for late night fun and a name collage of our entire family. The family hadn’t been all together in a quite some time and we just wanted to make everyone feel as welcome as possible – we were so excited to be together again!
Friday night, Grandma wanted to have a pitch tourney and we couldn’t say no to that! This is quite the competitive group and there was quite a bit of whooping and hollering! 🙂
We had the idea to make Grandma the star of the show for this event and we made her the queen of the cards. I printed some pictures of her and photoshopped some crowns on her head and then mounted them on foam board. We loved the way they turned out!
Wrex’s sister gathered prizes for the top two highest scores, one of which was Wrexy – no surprise there – and we used some old acrylic plates we had from a display case that we took apart and made plaques to go with them…
The losers got a little something, too. When we hosted pitch parties in Denver, we always tried to make the loser trophy completely ridiculous. I was at the dollar store before our trip and set out to find the most ridiculous looking thing I could find and I happened upon a glittery pirate owl. What the heck?! So I consulted the bestie on what to call the trophy and she came up with “Aye didn’t play my carrrrrds right!” Yes, she’s a genius.
Ashley took home one and Waco the other…he with a little less excitement than she. 😉
Saturday morning, we took professional family photos and then we all gathered to sit at the feet of 80 years of love and wisdom. Grandma shared her heart and her deep and abiding love with us and we got to tell stories and laugh and cry and reflect upon 80 incredible years… It was a really, really good time.
We had some lunch and then we reconvened for a little Minute to Win It showdown. This was so much more fun than I even hoped it would be!
Seriously, that was SO much fun! The Phipps’ are hosting a Minute to Win It night SOON – get ready!
That afternoon, we had an official birthday party for the birthday girl…but I’ll save those for tomorrow… You’re not gonna wanna miss it – trust me!
Oh my goodness! This looks so amazing as I knew it would. You absolutely outdid yourself once again, Stef! How could Granny feel anything other than honored and loved? The Lord sees and I know He’s so pleased with how hard you and Wrex worked to ensure your sweet Granny felt cherished. Can’t wait for the second half of the blog!
BTW, my last comment made it seem that I was implying that Granny did feel something other than honor and love and was somehow unhappy about her birthday weekend. That’s not what I meant. I was speaking to the fact that yours and Wrex’s main desire was that she feel honored and loved by all of this and I was saying that you, no doubt, accomplished that….above and beyond.
Oh goodness…of all people, I got you! 🙂 Thank you for your sweet words…we were so blessed by everyone and that everyone had a good time!