{Parties} 60 & Citrusy Sweet

Last Friday night our family celebrated my parents turning sixty by hosting a dinner party for them. It was a really fun night and so nice to be able to do something for the two individuals who have served my siblings and me for our entire lives {and continue to do so in many many ways}.

Here are some of the details from the night:

The restaurant had the table set for us when we arrived, and all we had to do was add some personal touches. It was a simple tablescape, but I really liked the way it turned out.

**Please excuse the poor quality of some of my pictures as they turned out a little blurry....I guess that's what happens when you're rushing to snap pics of everything before the guests arrive :-/


My sister-in-law made these beautiful centerpieces. She works for a florist and is very talented with her floral creations, so I enlisted her help for this party. The sunflowers and citrus slices were perfect and complimented the table nicely.


I created little menus, place cards, and favors for each guest, and my sister helped me set those up before the guests arrived.


To stay in keeping with the citrus theme, I attached the place cards to toothpicks and stuck them each in limes. For a favor, each couple received a set of citrus notecards personalized with their last name. My mom had seen notecard favors a long time ago in a magazine and mentioned that she thought they were a cute favor. I tucked that idea away and thought this was a perfect time to use it since it was her party.


The dinner menu was simple and listed the sips, eats, and sweets for the night.


The owner of the restaurant set up a little cake table for me, and I added some pretty fabric from JoAnn's, a Happy Birthday banner, the cake, some adult beverages and an open frame with old pictures of my parents. The frame I pulled from my basement and was something I used for the photo booth set-up at my son's first birthday party. It was already spray painted a lime green, so all my hubby had to do was attach three wire strands for me to hang pictures from. I used mini clothespins to attach the pictures.


The ribbon bunting for the cake was made with scraps of ribbon and attached to stripey straws. Very simple!


I also wanted to tie in our citrus theme with the cake so I asked the baker to keep it simple with the icing and add candied fruit slices around the base of the cake. I found the fruit slices at a local Hallmark store, and thought they looked so cute.


I did not serenade my parents ;-} The entire party sang "Happy Birthday" as I walked the cake over to them.


We were able to get a picture of our entire family {minus babies} at the end of the night. My brother-in-law Mark is rarely in family pictures because of his former job as a college football coach in Virginia. We are sooooo happy he made a career switch and moved my sister and their family back to New Jersey as of two weeks ago. Truly an answer to many prayers for their homecoming!


These two people were the ENTIRE reason for the party. We LOVE and appreciate them and feel beyond blessed to have them as our Mom and Dad.