My dad turned 60 yesterday! I love my
dad and, like most girls, think my dad is pretty
much the best dad ever. Only difference is, I'm right
and everyone else is wrong :) My dad gets first place in
the BEST DAD EVER contest, and everyone else's dads
can tie for second. Sorry. He's just that great!
Anyways, my mom and sister and I really wanted to
make a big deal about this milestone birthday... so we
decided to throw a surprise birthday party for him.
We've been planning this since August... and decided December 1st
was the perfect day to have it. None of us kids were able to spend
Thanksgiving Day with mom and dad (it was our year to be with the in-laws)
but we would all be in town the weekend after Thanksgiving, which is also
the weekend before dad's birthday... So that worked out perfectly. BUT...
We had to throw a FAKE party for dad before the REAL party! We had a
dinner party at my house the night before with family and a few good friends.
Us kids made a big dinner and had balloons and streamers and gifts - it
was a good little party... and we hoped that it was just enough to where
dad didn't think (or hope!) that we were planning anything else!
So that was the "fake" party. Now for the "real" one.
We don't usually plan parties on Sundays, but since my dad is a pastor,
we really wanted our church family to be included in the surprise because
we know how much they love him too! But it's not like we could make an
announcement from the pulpit or put it in the church bulletin - so we made a
Facebook event page (dad isn't on Facebook) and then used word of mouth
to get the info out. The party was in the gym at church right after the morning
service, so everyone made their way back there after church was over...
We lined someone up to distract dad til the sanctuary emptied... and then
I helped get dad back to the gym... I take him home from church fairly
often (he had a stroke a couple years ago and doesn't drive very much)
so my mom told my dad she had errands to run and told him I would take
him home. We always walk through the gym to get to the parking lot
where I typically park, so that wasn't anything out of the ordinary.
As we got close to gym though, dad could smell the food.... he made
a comment about it, and the only response I could think of was that
there's some kind of meeting back there (which was technically true!).
And of course, when he opened the door, there's
tons of people in the gym who all yelled SURPRISE!!!
I love all the signs we had for people to hold... sorry, the picture
isn't the greatest though, because I took a screenshot of my video.
Dang it! But you get the idea...
No idea if this video of the surprise will work.... but if it
does, the majority of it is sideways. Just tilt your head!
Next, the children's choir sang Happy Birthday to dad... it was so
sweet! They wore birthday hats and held birthday banners. Too cute!
Then everyone got to eat... we had chicken tenders and all kinds
of side dishes that people from church brought... everything looked
so delicious and I was so blown away by how much help we had!
And I'm tellin' you what... people at our church know how to COOK!
And we aren't even a Baptist church!!! HA! Can't say thank you enough
to Debi Herbert for coordinating all the food... what a woman!
My dad has two favorite desserts - HOT pie and COLD pie. So
we had a pie bar and had all different kinds of pie available.
For the decorations, we went with a black, white, and green color scheme.
Since it was December, we thought green was an appropriate color. It
doesn't hurt either that it's the color of Marshall University, and dad's a fan.
And it's especially appropriate since dad's last name is GREENE.
Rebekah and I had 6 posters made of dad through the years...
My favorite is the one of him rockin' a stache!! Hilarious!
We made a scrap fabric banner using different green, white and
black prints. Rebekah made the centerpieces and included fun little
facts about the year 1953. The setup went so fast with some many people
helping!!!! Thanks to each of you who helped in some form or fashion!
"60 Reasons We Are Glad Larry Alan Greene Was Born" board...
Loved it! People wrote their reason and and clipped it to the
clothespins.... Wish I would have gotten a pic of the finished product.
We had a little bit of entertainment... a man from church put on a crazy
getup and pretended to be an old friend of dad's from seminary. He
did a little bit of a roast, by poking fun of some of the stuff dad says or
does from the pulpit. Anyone who's been going to the church for even a
little while could recognize the examples and laugh about it. Thanks for
putting it together Paul!
This was such a great party and made some great memories for us...
lots of friends came in from out of town for it, and dad felt very
loved and blessed to have so many people who love him and care about him.
HAPPY 60th DAD... LOVE YOU!!!!
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