Help with my Mums 70th

[Thoughtsfortheday]

We live quite far from my folks and they are coming to stay with us which will also coincide with mums 70th

I’m so excited to see them and celebrate but feeling the pressure to make the day really special and memorable.

My mum hates fuss and when people offer helpful suggestions such as extravagant cakes, high teas of fancy meals I politely nod and secretly think, she’d not thank me that!!

She has said shes looking forward to a concert, (my DD’s are musical) and us all being together which is lovely but she is 70....

So far I have thought about a balloon arch and turning out little summer house into a stage/bar but could really do with some ideas on how to make the day’s special, maybe a workshop/kit/activity we could all do together in the garden

Money isn’t a worry We also have been gifted £50 from a family friend who wants me to arrange something on her behalf...

Help!

Do you have a lot of old family photos anywhere either at your home or reletives homes? Maybe get them all out and all sit round and go through them and remenisce together ? Kids love this too as they learn stuff about grandma and grandad and mum and dad etc they neer knew plus its always a giggle looking back over questionable fashion choices!! If you purchased a new album all of you could pick your favourite photos and put them in then its a gift for mum you all created together? We did this once it was such a lovely fun activity we were at it house laughing,remembering ,telling stories it was just wonderful. Also what about a little fire pit to sit and toast marshmellows on as the sun goes down? Or novelty seating works well such as hay bales covered in throws to watch a "concert"? just simple but a bit different?

Can you get afternoon tea delivered? Or is that still too much?

My dad was the same at 70....wouldn't let me arrange anything 'big. I got a nice cake for our house and a birthday tea.

I also think with covid some people don't want to go out much. That may play a part.

Sorry a bit left field....but if your girls are musical could you get a pianist to accompany them for a few pieces and then play a few themself? (We had a pianist at our wedding who bought his own electric piano if you needed it....) hire a pod for the garden so you can do it outside whatever the weather. Then decorate it too.....

@Mumdiva99 my eldest DD is a piano player so that will definitely play a part...

I love the old picture idea but I think I’ve left a bit late as there is 500 miles between them and us.

Cream tea possibly, it’s the kind of thing she does for others but she has a big of a dairy allergy and cream doesn’t really agree with her..

I’m making her sound fussy but she really isn’t, she just not big on attention herself which makes me want to spoil her even more...

She does really love seafood and didn’t know about having some fresh delivered...

Could you splurge on some M&S delivery food seafood platter and special bits mixed in with your own additions.
Could make it a really fancy afternoon tea/buffet with some fizz if your DM drinks or Pimms.
Then you have the concert and raise a toast could your girls make some cupcakes to stick candles in?
It’s that balance between not too much fuss but a bit special. Some pretty flowers nice balloons or bunting.
A lovely evening with family is often enough if you know that suits your DM.
Depending how long she is with you could you go for a walk at a NT place in the morning with everyone then the afternoon/evening thing later.

For my mum's 70th we just had a BBQ at our house and of course a cake with her immediate family. Other sibling was visiting from overseas with family. My DM also didn't like a lot of fuss but at the same time would have been dissapointed if we had done nothing. This was before milestone birthdays were such a big thing.

You could definitely get a dairy free afternoon tea. But a seafood platter sounds amazing and would look impressive.

We got muscles from the local fishmongers then other day. We did moules frites salad bread it was delicious. (Not something we do all the time so felt like a treat ).

For the possible activity, there are some nice mosaic kits on Etsy that everyone could take a part in to make as a gift - bird baths, large mats and so on.

lazylump72's idea is fantastic, if there are lots of family archive photos and videos you can organize them and look through them together, some of the oldest pictures can be digitized and restored or even recolored via programs like Photoglory or Photoworks so that they would look newer. You can actually do all this recoloring together, kids have lots of fun when they try to guess what color grandma's dress was!
For other possible activities you can get DIY kits and make something together. I think it should be something that's easily done and doesn't require a lot of time, so think of DIY chocolate kit and probably some fabric paint and several white t-shirts to draw on!

(Pinched from a Pinterest type post), but I asked my cousins, siblings and their kids to email me a digital photo of them each holding a blank sheet of white A4 paper against a white wall. I cut out the background around each person using a photo editing app and added a letter onto each piece of paper. So it ended up with photos of about 20 of our family spelling out "Happy 80th birthday XX" which I had printed as a big photo. My mum loved it and still has it up on her wall.

Difficult if you don't have access to photos, but I hung photos of her from different years in our summerhouse. She really enjoyed talking to her grandchildren about the different memories. I went down the afternoon tea route and ordered some nice food from M&S. Hope your celebrations go well!

I also made her a quiz about her life (helped by my dad) but we do like a quiz so possibly not for everyone