Aug. 8: Big ol’ milestone

My husband celebrated his 50th birthday a couple weeks ago. Fifty! Fiiiiiifteeeeeeee! I am married to a very old man.

I had planned on throwing a monster-huge party for him, but then came The Summer of The Broken Ankle; I feel absolutely useless in this cast. For a while I thought we’d still have a party, just a couple months late. Victor kept reminding me it was no big deal, but I say that’s just ridiculous—you can’t let a 50th birthday go by unpartied for! The subject came up again two weeks ago and we both kinda decided to just plan a last-minute thing and hope our nearest and dearest could make it.

And most of them did. Yay! We got together last Sunday in honor of the elderly guy who lives in my house.

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Sonya and Victor

Dina, Vic, and Val = The Trio of Pure Spectacularness™

Theresa, Tina, Dina, and me

Blaine can almost do a pushup with Val sitting on him!
I love the crowd of kids around them, in complete awe of Blaine’s strength.
(That’s what he thinks, anyway.)

Two of my neighbor-friends, Cristina and Trudy. Ring pops!

Randy, Jim, and Jeremy.
I have no idea what they’re doing, but I see the tequila is still sealed...

Cassie’s got her hands in the air like she just don’t care.
Is Tina sleeping?

 
The kids lined up chairs all across the street and waited for a car
to come so they could blow horns at it.
Good thing our street’s not busy; they got tired of waiting and gave up.
<cough> Idiots! <cough>

My BFF April couldn’t join the festivities, but her mom did!
Pat and Darlene are friends from college. (I love that.)
I think they’re talking about how they can’t possibly have children 50 years old.

Theresa, Dina, Val
(I love these girls so much)

Some o’ the kids.

More kids.
Randy’s still barely taller than Blaine (who sooo looks like Dina in this pic, BTW).
Jack is a dork.
Mack is blurry.

 
Happy recent 20th anniversary to Randy and Dina!
She got a gorgeous rock, sure, but Cassie’s got the real ‘spensive bling.

 
I asked guests to write out an answer to this question, and
the slips of paper are saved in a jar that we’ll treasure forever.
Or at least until Victor goes senile and forgets his name.

The cupcake picks were colorful and sarcastic and fun.
We also had big jars of candy with pun-ny signs and DIY goodie bags:
“thirty sucks” (lollipops)
“forty blows” (gumballs)
“fifty rocks” (chocolate rock candy)
“kiss middle age goodbye” (Hershey’s Kisses)
“treasure your youth” (candy necklaces, ring pops, gold chocolate coins, etc.)
I hate puns, but I do love cute birthday party décor and excuses to have candy.

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I was thrilled to have a great turnout of our family and friends in honor of Vic’s big birthday. The kids were a surprisingly lot of help in getting things ready, and so were several other cool peeps. Extra-special thanks to:

• Kristen and Matt, who helped with the last few prep duties and, most importantly, figured out how to use the automatic corkscrew. The people who were happy about that were REALLY happy about that.
• Sonya, Chris, Julianne, and Jacob, who made the trip from Issaquah. It wouldn’t have been the same to celebrate Vic without them.
• Darlene, who brought homemade goodies. She always makes such good stuff—it’s, like, almost too pretty to eat.
• Dawn, who said she’d bring delicious treats as long as I didn’t give her credit but guess what? I’m totally doing it anyway. Thanks, Dawn! I’m so appreciative of your bacon-wrapped jalapeño poppers that I’m not posting the pic of you and the potato salad.
• Alec (our nephew), who gave up a chunk of his weekend to attend and represent his part of the family. It was nice to have him with us.
• Mother Mary. She couldn’t actually be at the party, but she happily shared purchases from across the state line.
• Cristina, who let us borrow important party supplies.
• All the people who brought refreshing bottled beverages. We have a few parties’ worth in leftovers—there’s an FYI that ought to get us on a guest list or two.
• Val, who took most of these photos.
• Nikki, Mack, Lauren, and Phoebe, who helped Katie and Jack decorate and do last-minute setup.
• Everyone who was super-sweet to Maya. This was her first big group, and we were pleased to see her do so well.

Party guests whose true identity I shall protect to the grave until someone asks me who it was:

• The person who lost track of her kid. Like, it was midnight and we were yelling up and down the street. Because I lost my kid too.
• The person who stood in front of the open freezer for five minutes looking for ice. She couldn’t quite focus on the tiny 20-pound bags at eye level until her son pointed them out to her. And then she looked at him lovingly and said, “Thank you. I love ice.”
• The person who forgot her shoes at our house. How does a person leave a party barefoot? Maybe after you’ve stared at 40 pounds of ice for five minutes…
• Friends and family who wanted to be at the party but couldn’t make it, as well as the friends and family who didn’t want to be at the party but came anyway.

 

Here’s what the kitchen floor looked like the next morning.
It was so, so disgusting.
I blame the kids, their soda, and whoever opened the tequila.

 

As I’ve cleaned up and put away party supplies this week, I’ve taken extra care not to destroy any of the age-specific stuff—we’ll need it again in four short years when it’s time to celebrate me turning the big 5-0. Yikes. Really, that is all I have to say about being so close to 50: YIKES.

But congrats to YOU on making it to 50, Victor! And thanks for giving us a reason to party.