Surprise Daddy-o! [Part 2]

Hello Tuesday! Today, I'm sharing the second part of my Dad's 50th birthday party. Last Thursday, I talked about the planning aspects; you can read that post HERE. I'm sharing everything about the actual party today. I tried to get a little bit of everything - the decor, the fabulous lights, the guests, the food, the games, the dancing, etc. There was a lot of going on! And I have to kick off this post by saying a HUGE thank you to our family friends Peter and Hannah. They took all of these pictures! I asked them before hand if they could be on camera duty for the night, and they crushed it! They got a little bit of everything and I am so glad we have these pictures!

I realize I'm starting this post off with a shout out to our photographers & there might be a lot of that in this post. We have the most wonderful family & friends and they really rallied around us to hold this party together. So, lots of pictures and lots of shout outs in this post!

Let's start at the very beginning - my Dad walked in and without even flinching he turned around to  snap a selfie with everyone! Our family friend, Maxim pulled a string and all of those balloons fell from overhead - magic! It was a perfect entrance!

All of the guests arrived for 5:30 and my family arrived at 6:00. This gave our guests plenty of time to greet each other and get settled. We were there during the day to set everything up and my Auntie Norma arrived early to greet everyone (and put out bowls of chips! Norma takes her chips seriously!).

Once my family arrived, we made the rounds to say hi to everyone. It took my Dad longer to get around the room, but we were able to get dinner started as he was still chatting and greeting everyone. It was so hard to choose which pictures to share, but I knew this last one was a must share! That is my Dad saying hi to his Mom (my grandma!) and his sweet Aunt Mag & Uncle Chuck!

For dinner, we had a buffet of lasagna, tortellini, Italian sausages, salads, some veggies and cold cuts. I didn't really notice how this went down but it seemed to work out well. 80 people is a lot of people to have walk through a buffet; I was anticipating sheer chaos, but I think it worked well!

After dinner, we launched our first game. Just like I was a little anxious about the buffet, I was nervous about the games! 80 people is a heck of a lot of people to try to gather together. I was anticipating people interested in playing would play, but other's would just do their own thing. Guess what? I could barely get through the explanation for human bingo because everyone was ready to play! They got competitive, they talked to new people, there was trash talking and lots of semi-organized chaos!

Everyone was coming to show me their completed human bingo card and I realized I had no prizes - ha! I gave out bragging rights, promises of the first cupcake, high fives, hugs... Our guests loved this game like I've never seen before! I will talk more about this game & share our playing board in the near future!

Then we played a game of personalized jeopardy (one of my all time favorite party games) and they got into this one too! Again, there was lots of noise and trash talking but it was all in good spirit & I think our guests really enjoyed this game!

We set up a photo booth that got a lot of love! It was so fun to see people using our funny props!

I got to grab a picture with two of my favorite girls! Kim and I are about the same height but Hannah is itty bitty. Kim was laughing when she saw this picture and said we look like giants doing deep squats next to Hannah!

My Mom, the Bean and I said a few words before passing the mic to my Dad. As usual, he had the whole room cracking up!

We managed to snap a quick picture of my Dad and his 3 brothers! I was told over and over again how much I look like my Uncle Jeff (next to my Dad in the purple shirt), apparently there is a strong family resemblance there! 

My Dad and his younger brother. These two definitely resemble each other!

 A quick picture with my bestie before dessert!

This is the only picture that was taken of the cupcakes and I am so glad someone took it! I meant to take a picture of them but got swept away in the evening! We sang happy birthday and brought out dessert. I promised my cousin, Jenna first dibs at the cupcakes for winning human bingo and she was was so happy to get in there first!

I made 3 dozen vanilla cupcakes and 3 dozen chocolate cupcakes (72 total) and we went home with 4 cupcakes at the end of the night! These cupcakes got some big love!

My Dad was gifted a Cory Crawford jersey which was pretty spectacular! Cory Crawford's number is 50 (which perfectly coincides with my Dad's age!) and my Dad taught Cory Crawford when he was in high school!

My favorite part of the whole evening is when we opened up the dance floor. After happy birthday and cupcakes, we turned up the music and danced the night away!

A quick story about our party lights, because aren't they amazing? I asked my Auntie Norma's family if we could borrow some lights because they have a few part lights and a disco ball. Well Norma's son said he had a friend who could help us out. We said sure, not really knowing what we were going to end up with! Little did we know, this 16 year old kid could put on one heck of a light show! He was so professional and put up some of the best party lights I have ever seen! The lights totally made the party!

These are the boys that held the light and sound together during the evening! They made every single part of the night so much easier!They switched playlists for me, they had a microphone ready for speeches and games and they turned the lights on in barely a second when we opened the dance floor!

My Dad will always hit the dance floor if Cotton Eyed Joe is playing! It was one of the first songs I put on the birthday playlist!

My Auntie Norma requested some disco for the evening, so played lots of disco too! When I was scrolling through the pictures, this one cracked me up! Apparently I was into the disco!

Possibly one of my favorite pictures from the whole party featuring two of my favorite people - Lesley & Peter! These two are always the first ones on the dance floor! After this party, I've decided I absolutely need them at all of my future parties because they make the dance floor the place to be! I was so grateful for their energy and their ability to liven up the party!

Another one of my favorite pictures - my mama and Norma! Norma was the best as we were putting this party together! She did anything & everything we needed - she picked up balloons, she greeted out guests, she made sure dinner was ready to serve... So many times during the party, I'd walk past her in a hurry and she'd say what do you need Kenz? And just like that it was done! She was one of the biggest players in holding this party together and I was so grateful to her!

Phew! Is that enough pictures for one day? I think yes! There are still little party details that I will share in the coming days (like Human Bingo!) but that's it for now! Thank you so much for reading! See you tomorrow!