50th Anniversary: The Preparation...

I decided to celebrate our 50th Wedding Anniversary with a quiet family dinner at home. The plan was to adhere to the KISS rule...(Keep It Simple, Stupid)...

Lilly and Warren slept over on Friday night. As we were eating breakfast Saturday morning, Warren wrote down our "to do" list for the day...IT WAS THREE PAGES...(his printing is big -- but, really?).

One of the first jobs of the day was for Lilly to make a canvas that says, "All Because Two People Fell In Love". I wanted to hold it up for our family photo...

I showed her some of my wedding pictures. My colors were chartreuse (pea green) and turquoise.

There was also a can of GOLD SPRAY PAINT for the children to wrestle with.

They were making golden rocks for souvenirs (the gold manicure was a happy side effect).

The gold balls are actually paper globes -- for a string of lights we were going to hang...

Warren got side-tracked by a pack of candy cigarettes. (thanks, Anne!)....Lilly and I were busy planning the outfits everybody should wear for the family pictures...

The Golden Globes are coming together...(it was about 11:00 at this point)

Lilly started to create the "Memory Table" -- with our wedding album, my headpiece, this beautiful bouquet...and other mementos from October 17, 1970..!!  (a bottle of unopened whiskey from our reception)...

The table was set with the fabulous sequined tablecloth. I asked Warren to take a picture...

Take two, bud -- just in case...(so, okay, Warren wasn't actually THAT much help...)

 

HOLY COW...it was about 2:00 at this point -- and I hadn't even showered!

Lilly made place cards.  AND took one good picture of the table (before it got all messed up with that pesky delicious food).

 

 

 

Here's the thing. IT IS A LOT OF WORK TO PLAN A ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME CELEBRATION...

 For starters -- I had to do a lot of digging to even find our wedding album -- which the boys have NEVER seen. (I don't actually remember ever showing it to anybody...I mean -- who wants to see your wedding or vacation photos?)

Warren's Saturday morning list started with some art projects, and then there was cleaning, a little cooking, a LOT of decorating...

The main thing for me was all about that list.  I wanted Lilly and Warren to ask questions, look at those pictures, to see Grandma and Grandpa as Rita and John...I wanted them to hear our story...

 

I wanted them to feel like they were the ones hosting this party.  So my concern was not about perfection -- it was about letting THEM DO THESE MANY JOBS...they picked out their own outfits, they had a hand in every single part of the planning...Lilly painted the canvas, put together the strign of golden globes, set the table, and made a lemon/chocolate parfait all by herself (with the lemon icebox pie recipe -- thanks, LP)...

 

Warren...well...Warren tried hard not to get spaghetti sauce on his shirt before the pictures were taken

I was delighted to use Lilly's canvas in our photos...and will proudly hang it up (next to the finished pictures). But I wonder how long it will be before she realizes she made a spelling error? (I'm not gonna tell her)...