they just call me fiona...: Grandpa's 90th Birthday Par-tay

Grandpa Dean turns 90 on December 4th. 90. Now that's something to celebrate! So we decided to have a big shindig for him in July.

And a par-tay it was!

Okay, so now for a bit of true confessions. Even with my pages of notes and my endless lists, you can't get everything right, right? I do realize he only turns 90 once, but I have an even longer list of "things we would have done differently". So, not that you need to hear this list, but you'll understand why I'm telling you this one: hire a photographer. This is the ONLY photo we have from the party. I'm not kidding you.

Couple of things. Grandpa knows quite a few people. Thanks to facebook, I know for sure a few hundred knew about the party. Thanks to the Ranchland News, eastern Colorado knew about the party. Thanks to invites sent out to extended family, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas were all invited. And I think everyone showed up. At once.

The par-tay was after church on Sunday in the afternoon, for two hours. That way, people wouldn't have to RSVP and we wouldn't have to worry about having enough food. Not to mention all the logistics of feeding people at this sort of thing, and let's face it...we had to avoid the fly situation. I can't handle the flies in the summer on the food. Gross.

So it started and people started trickling in, and then pouring in, and then piling in (in the first 10 minutes) ....and then we were out of chairs, and the house was packed and we were all thirsty and it was hot. Disaster averted. We had 100 chairs in the back of the stock trailer which the grandkids had set up in 15 seconds flat. And Deb grabbed a water pitcher and never put the thing down. And Uncle Larry started passing out cake (thank goodness or we would have had all 5 cakes left over). And the whirlwind began, and it was awesome.

Along with his nearest and dearest friends and family, he said one friend came from Texas who he hadn't seen since the 70's--and since then his friend had gotten married, so he got to meet his wife. Grandpa was in the height of his glory. He would have loved two hours with each guest at the party, so we might just have to do another one for him!

We did have a tablecloth that guests signed--Grandma started that tradition, with embroidering each name of each guest to their home--I think she has three or four completely full. So, now, Grandpa can have breakfast and read the names of all the special people who came out to celebrate his birthday.

And, contrary to what he may think, he can't go home yet.

After the party, the family had a barbeque. Granted, this is less than half our family. Way less....crazy, right? And he needs to come to my wedding so he can't go home yet!! So, besides the cake, these were the only photos we got of the day. So, if you get an invited to his 91st, you 'll know it's just because we wanted some photos of you!!