Dianna’s 50th

One of my favorite things to do is plan a party. So, when my nieces Carmen and Rosie and nephew Tony asked me to help throw a surprise 50th birthday party for their mother and my sister Dianna, I was delighted to help.

Because Dianna loved the 1960’s, we decided to give the party a groovy psychedelic theme. We tricked her into staying with our Dad for a few days while we were “making” her something for her birthday. She could not be in the house because we needed her living room to make it happen. Wink Wink. My niece Carmen and I are big sewers, so I was hoping Dianna really did believe that we were making her window treatments or something.

The budget was tight so we were creative. The girls hit the thrift stores buying lava lamps, colorful crochet blankets, posters, anything we could find to turn her living room into a groovy far out pad. We cleared out the garage and set it up as the food and drink area. To continue with the theme, the food was reminiscent of the 60’s era….with fondue, jell-o molds, casseroles, etc. and was dressed with Tupperware and great wooded bowls found during our thrift store adventures.

In the music department, we were going to hire a Disc Jockey for the night. But, thanks to technology I was able to rip tons of great 60’s music and put it on my iPod. We also asked people to bring their old vinyl records. Jase played DJ for the night and bounced from iPod to recorded player throughout the evening. Tony and I rented out speakers, mixer, microphone and some greats lights from Luners in Ventura.

With all the decorations and music, the house was transformed into a cool pad. Now, all we needed to do was make sure Dianna did not find out. Keeping a secret like this with so many people knowing was a hard thing to do!

Dianna’s Surprise Party

We asked everyone to dress up for the occasion, in their best hippie, mod, Vietnam Vet, and groovy outfits. It was great to see so many people participating in the fun. Rosie called Dianna saying to come to the house and that we wanted to take her out to dinner for her birthday (actual birthday is October 8th) and, also, so she could come see what we made her. We had everyone stand in the driveway and wait for Dianna. Wow was she surprised, everything turned out great!

Dianna totally glowed that night and looked beautiful. Dianna is the oldest out of 8 kids, but when it comes to partying she can run circles around all of us. Most of her brothers and sisters could not make till 10:00, but James and I held on till the very end. The music was great, Jase was awesome and we danced to 60’s and 70’s music until 1:30am!

Dianna beat us all, she was the last person standing that night. I still have Tina Turners “Proud Mary” in my head . What a Party!!!! “Rollin…Rollin…rollin on the river….”

Click here for more pictures of the party…