Ideas for Mother's 80th Birthday

RE: Ideas for Mother's 80th Birthday Post By diane (Guest Post) (09/04/2008) We are having on 80th b-day for my mom and were are making her a film of her life. We are scanning old pictures onto a disc to play on a screen. The pictures go from her birth to the birth of her great grandchildren. We are screening it in her yard which is set up like a movie theater with popcorn and candy. Hope this will help! Report Spam or Abuse RE: Ideas for Mother's 80th Birthday Post By Betsy (Guest Post) (06/22/2008) Hi, My Mother in law turns 80 on 12/20. I am helping with the planning of her celebration. Do you think most 80 year moms would prefer a big dinner party (200 people) at a Country Club or a cruise with her family (2 sons, 2 daughters in law and 5 grandchildren ages 8 - 13)? If we ask her she will just say "oh please don't make a fuss." She has lots of friends since she is President of the Police Activity League (PALS) but she is also crazy about her family. We are all she has left since my father in law died 3 years ago. Thanks! Report Spam or Abuse RE: Ideas for Mother's 80th Birthday Post By Stephanie (Guest Post) (02/22/2008) We are planning a 90th birthday celebration for my mother in law in November. When we celebrated my parents 50th anniversary we sent letters to friends and family about 6 months in advance requesting they send a card, letter and/or poem along with a picture of themselves. We asked that they be returned at least 2 months before the actual date of party. We created a memory scrapbook for them and had it there for their celebration. Since there was a request for no gifts this was a great gift that all could participate in and was almost no cost to the guest. It was a great success. We sent reminder invitations to the celebration about 2 months prior to the event. We plan to do the same thing for my mother in law. We will be serving finger foods with a dessert bar, including a chocolate fountain, punch spiced tea and coffee. We plan to bring in two wing back chairs with a small table for her to sit in along with a friend to chat. There will be several round tables with chairs and 3 or 4 long banquet tables for guest to be seated. We will be using a family and friends theme. The colors are deep blue (her favorite color) along with fall colors. Lots of color for a wonderful celebration of life, Report Spam or Abuse RE: Ideas for Mother's 80th Birthday Post By binkylou (Guest Post) (02/01/2008) Why not make her a memory jar. Have all of her children and their spouses write down on a slips of paper detailing happy and funny memories (hopefully having at least 365 slips)and then decorate the jar with a pretty ribbon. Tell her to pull out one memory a day for a gift that will last all year. It's also a gift to her loved ones who get to recall all these wonderful memories as they are writing them down for her. Report Spam or Abuse RE: Ideas for Mother's 80th Birthday Post by luvmygingerkids (382) | (02/01/2008) Profile | Blog! | Contact Can you tell us more about your mother? What kinds of things does she like? Does she collect things? What are her favorite foods? Who are her favorite celebrities? Does she have any hobbies? What does she "flip" over? What are her favorite colors? One idea I can think of is if everyone who knows her wrote a funny or heartwarming anecdote about when she was younger, you could compile it in a book. Add photos too. Report Spam or Abuse RE: Ideas for Mother's 80th Birthday Post By lucy Harlow (Guest Post) (01/31/2008) For Christmas I made memory jars for family members. I took a plastic jar from the dollar store and filled with slips of paper. Each paper had a memory of something I remembered from the past about them. Report Spam or Abuse Request: 80th Birthday Party Suggestions Post by Laurel_admin (469) | (01/29/2008) Contact We are planning a 80th birthday party for my mother in December. I would love for your readers to come up with some Ideas for this celebration. She is an Eastern Star Member and we are having this event at the Masonic Temple. Any suggestions regarding the food, decorations and etc. would be greatly appreciated. Thank all of you, in advance. Mary from Mendenhall, MS Answers: RE: 80th Birthday Party Suggestions We are taking dad on a cruise for his 80th birthday. So my brother gave him 80 quarters (for the slot machine) with a catchy little note attached. My sister gave dad 80 candy Kisses in a jar along with a little note. A granddaughter gave him 80 candy Hugs (dad loves candy) in a tin with a Bass fish on it, since he loves to fish, also with a little note attached. These are a few ideas that may be of some help. I really liked the idea of the 80 candy Kisses & Hugs. Very inexpensive! (01/05/2008) By Robin RE: 80th Birthday Party Suggestions We have a large family and are in the process of planning a 80th birthday party in March for Mom. The theme we are choosing is 'family'. We purchased one of those revolving digital picture albums and are asking that the family email us pictures either in digital format or we will scan. We will load the album with with those pictures as a gift to leave with Mom. Then we will use them for table decorations. I plan on printing some pictures, then getting them mounted on foam board (both sides) adding a stick of different heights and add a few to each centerpiece. We also like using balloons for color. We want to serve finger foods. Any other suggestions will be appreciated. Cheers (01/17/2008) By Janeen Report Spam or Abuse Request: 80th Birthday Party Suggestions Post by Laurel_admin (469) | (11/11/2007) Contact This December my Mother will be celebrating her 80th birthday. Does anyone have any suggestions on what one could do for her birthday. She is not in good health as she is in a wheelchair. Also, I would like to make her a poem regarding her 80th birthday from me, her daughter. She is in a nursing home as of this time but may be home by December. Thanks in advance for your time regarding this matter. Mary from Mendenhall, MS. Answers: RE: 80th Birthday Party Suggestions Revert to her childhood and her favorite treats. Orientaltrading.com has lots of the oldie style small toys and candy that she would remember. Write a list of 80 blessings and Motherly gifts that she passed on to you. (Compassion for others etc.) See if you can track down any of her school mates, this will take a bit of time but would be well worth a few long distance calls. (07/31/2007) By Amy in Indiana RE: 80th Birthday Party Suggestions One of the things my sister and I did for our dad's 90th birthday party: We got 90 helium balloons and had them tied in groups onto the center pieces on each table. Then at the end of the party, we all went outside, having one person from each table carry the center pieces outside with the balloons attached. Then we had our dad cut the ribbons on all the balloons and let them all go. It was quite a sight to see all those balloons in the sky. Daddy said it was the best part of his party! We also had a "picture table" where we had scattered a lot of pictures of him throughout the years for people to look through. Another table had some memorabilia from the year he was born (1911). Old coins, stamps, model cars. We found a lot of things on E-Bay that we bought that were pretty inexpensive, like some old post cards that had pictures of the little town he was from in South Dakota, etc. We just used the search mode on E-Bay. Good luck and happy birthday to your mother! (P.S. You might get a good deal from the local supermarket for the balloons, since you'll be getting 80 of them! Just be sure you call them ahead of time so they'll be ready for you!) (07/31/2007) By Linda in Alabama RE: 80th Birthday Party Suggestions Here's a poem I wrote for my mother-in-law's 80th birthday. You can use it if it will help. Here's to a lady Who just turned 80 And still her beauty shines through She strives to be kind And has a great mind It's hard to top her, whew! Some call her Nana Some call her Mum And some get to call her friend She's always willing She's helpful and giving Always on hand to lend So let's raise a toast To the one who's the most From her grandchildren, Sons and their wives. We are much richer You can just betcha That Anna's a part of our lives (07/31/2007) By Sally Pifer RE: 80th Birthday Party Suggestions Have a reverse birthday and have her give the gifts! When we celebrated my Mom's birthdays at that age we tried to get her to remember things she enjoyed doing as a young girl. (This can be done a little bit at a time so as not to tire her) See if you can get her to remember these things before her birthday and tape record them. Then on her birthday make copies of the tape and have her give them as gifts to her family members. This is a great way to have family remember her and have her give a gift only she can give. Also you might ask the recreational director to discover what she enjoys doing the most...and have some form of that activity. (07/31/2007) By Jan RE: 80th Birthday Party Suggestions We celebrated our Mother's 80th birthday at a restaurant (in a private room), with all of her siblings, children and grandchildren. We had a corsage for her, and everyone brought gifts. It was a night she remembered for a long time. (07/31/2007) By tedsmom RE: 80th Birthday Party Suggestions Our family has had LARGE family parties for both grandmas when they turn 75, 80, and 85. My best advice is to get the family together and take pictures, NOT snapshots but portraits! We had a photographer (my husband) come in with a FULL portable studio and take group family portraits of all different family combinations. We then took the proofs to grandma where everyone came back to visit her and order their pictures. Now a days you can have the photographer show you there that day if they have a laptop. The pictures from her 85th were very special as she past away within six weeks of the birthday party. The portrait that we took of grandma with her six children we then blew up (16 X 20) and framed it for her. She got years of enjoyment out of seeing her portrait of her and her children. The other thing that we did was take her old pictures she accumulated over the years and scanned them and made a slide show out of them for her to watch. It included music behind the pictures. We also did this but this is something we do with wedding pictures. My cousin did one that was not nearly as "nice" or professional as ours. It is up to you and how much you want to spend on her. With either of these gifts you can also let the family know that they can enjoy the gift as much as she does and have them pay for the copies therefore pay a professional to do it. As you can tell I am all about pictures and think that people miss out too much on pictures and capturing the times on film (or computer images). We also use the slide show idea at weddings, graduations, funerals (and yes we had a photography take candids at the funeral). Good luck with the party and celebrate! (07/31/2007) By Nancy RE: 80th Birthday Party Suggestions One other thing my sister did was get one of the family- tell me about your life grandmother books and visit her and go over some of the questions with her and fill in the book. This is more for you than for her but I know of another cousin that gave the book as a gift for her to fill out. (07/31/2007) By Nancy RE: 80th Birthday Party Suggestions Have birthday greetings sent to her from The White House. I did this for my parents' 50th wedding anniv. and my Dad's upcoming 80th birthday. Here's the link: https://app1.whitehouse.gov/greetings/home. We will rent the back room at a local restaurant for Dad's BD dinner, the same as we did for their W.A. (07/31/2007) By Maryeileen RE: 80th Birthday Party Suggestions I like the ideas on photos and portraits. Videotaping the party would be nice too. She might enjoy a low-key celebration that gives her time to talk a little to each of the guests. Or maybe 2 smaller get-togethers (one for relatives, one for her close friends) over a week's time so she can relax and enjoy the whole week. I would keep any slide show fairly short, and you can pass around photos and/or a laptop afterwards. (07/31/2007) By Jantoo RE: 80th Birthday Party Suggestions I really like the idea of giving family a plain piece of material for them to write a special note to your Mom. A pen made just for material has to be used. You can scan photos and transfer these to material squares. Put these together along with the special note's material squares, and make a quilt for your Mom. This is a gift that will be especially meaningful to her. She can have a piece of her family with her at all times, in the form of a hug from the quilt! (07/31/2007) By Karen Report Spam or Abuse