75th Birthday!

November 17 was my dad's 75^th birthday. My sisters and I decided this was the perfect time for us to throw him a surprise party to celebrate! So we started planning about 8-10 weeks ago. Since my dad is a runner and has done 202 marathons, we thought a running theme was in order.

My sister, Cheryl, compiled a LOT of pictures with the help of my brother-in-law, Kent, the two of them created a beautiful photo book chronicling my dad's life. It was amazing! My sister, Shelly, and her daughter, Charli Jo, made all the signs for decorations. They said things like, “Looking Strong”, “You're Flying Now”, “You Rock”, etc. Charli Jo did some very cute artwork to go along with each sign. They turned out great!

My job was to create invitations, party favors, cake, and get a shirt made for my dad. With the help of my cousin, Jonny, he created a graphic for us to use for the invitations and for my dad's shirt. They were really cute! Then, for party favors, I found a really cute idea on Pinterest to use Gatorade bottles and put running “bib” labels on them and hang medals around the neck of the bottle. I think they turned out super cute! By the way, the bib graphic is the same thing used on the party invitations. 

We created the name of a fictitious marathon to honor my dad. His name is Charles Cutting, so we named it “The Cutting Classic Marathon.”

Then, I had a friend who makes cakes so we had her make the decorations for my dad's cake. The party was at my sister's house in Spokane and my friend lives in Walla Walla so we didn't want to have to transfer the whole cake with decorations. So we bought a cake at Costco and had them write “Happy Birthday Charles” on it. Then, my friend, Angela, made the most amazing cake toppers for us to put on top of the cake. The runner is dressed like my dad on his most recent marathon. The finish line clock shows his time on the last marathon he ran, and she made the road for him to run down. It couldn't have turned out cuter. We LOVED it!

We also put together a short questionnaire for people to fill out about my dad which we had them do before he arrived. Then, after everyone left, he could read through the notes that people wrote. We asked the following questions:

What is your favorite memory of Charles?

What is your advice for Charles in his next 75 years?

If you could describe Charles in 5 words, what would they be?

We were so amazed at how much thought people took when they wrote out their answers. It was so special for him to read those. 

My dad loved having so many friends and family there to celebrate with him and he was truly surprised. He had no idea we were planning this! It was so fun! Happy Birthday Dad! We love you!