Sorry, some of the pictures do not line up with the description or text. Still trying to figure out how to format pictures and text.... :-(
After 3 months of keeping my dad's retirement a secret, we were able to have fun and celebrate his 30 years of working as a teacher.
First, I started off with the invitations that I made through Seehere.com.
.png)
For the theme we decided to do a "this is your life" where each table piece would represent a fun fact about our dad. In total, we would have 7 different "little known fact" centerpieces.
I also had to get a bit creative because as we were having the party at a restaurant I had less room to decorate, but I worked with what I had. I did take my own white tablecloths. What was awesome also, was that the decorations did not cost anything because I took items from my house and from my parent's house so that was a bonus and I used my picture frames that I already had a home, so the only thing I had to do was print out the summaries.
Here are pictures I took at home to get an idea of how I would set up at the restaurant.
Here is the "banner" centerpiece.
The "Culture" centerpiece.
The "Nativity Scene" centerpiece.
The "Marriage" Centerpiece
and
The "Children and Grandchild" Centerpiece
The "Gradua
tion" Centerpiece
The "World Traveler" Centerpiece
Ohhhh... as always, my favorite part of the party planning and at the party is the cake!!! I LOVE my cake lady, Rosalinda which one of my best friend's, Alexis, introduced me to since my original cake lady is on medical leave. :-(
Rosalinda replicated the picture of what I wanted the cake to look like to perfection! Even people at the restaurant and the waiters would stop by and comment on the awesome cake!
For the favors, my friend Debbie went with me shopping at Michael's to get inspired on what cookie cutters I would use. We found a triple pack of cookie cutters that included a train, a plane, and a race car. It was perfect! I was a bit frustrated because the cookies when cut out looked like the mode of transportation.... when baked and frosted turned out to look a bit like the continent of Asia among others... but it helped that I was able to attach a label to each favor. :-) I made half of the batch sugar cookies and the other half gingerbread cookies.
The Train
The Race Car
The Plane
Now, what would a party be without some fun games. I'll be honest with you, it was a bit hard to yell over so much noise at the restaurant, but boy was it fun.For the first game, I had the "Name the New Hobby" They had 1 minute to complete the game. Whoever had answered the most, won a prize which was a ceramic treasure chest that read: "For Your Retirement".The funny part was collecting the game cards and having my dad read them that night. BOY.... were there some interesting answers! :-)Name the New Hobby
Write an activity that Rodrigo can do that begins with each letter
“The trouble with retirement is that you never get a day off.
A N
B O
C P
D Q
E R
F S
G T
H U
I V
J W
K X
L Y
M Z
The 2nd game was "Retirement Bingo". My husband and I had a great time one night thinking of what would go in each box. The game was so much fun and a hit that we played a couple rounds even though I only had one prize. Unfortunately, I am not able to post a picture of the game card, my computer is acting up a bit, but examples of what were in the boxes were such thing as: "Finding a 2nd Career," "Shaving off my mustache", "Learning to use the Microwave", "Throwing away his lesson plans," "Cooking a dinner for mom" etc...
tion" Centerpiece
