Jeff turns 28!

Last month I threw a birthday party for my hubby Jeffery's 28th Birthday. I was so excited for it, I started planning it in July after my birthday.



I already posted about prepping the back yard for his birthday. I had to really spruce up the backyard because with so many of us just in our immediate families, it'd be the only place big enough to hold all of us for dinner. It was still pretty snug, using both inside and outside.

It started with the Bame’s doing what they do best, watching whatever game was on TV that day. They even did this at our wedding reception...



The Jones' were outside in the middle of some conversation of course. My dad was the cook that night, cooking the shish kabobs on the grill that I gave Jeff for his birthday (my present was a whole backyard kind of a theme, I love theme presents).





The shish kabobs were getting done right around the time the game ended. Perfect timing. We had a pretty good spread if I do say so myself.







Somehow Lora still ended up sitting at the kids table- LOL!



On each of our tables I had a candle in a pickle jar, a bottle of lemonade (both decorated by Jade and I for the occasion, and some pens and paper.



The Pens and Paper were for a fun little project I had going that night. I love the "30 before 30" lists I see on the web everywhere and I really wanted Jeff and I to create our own. I know you are suppose to create this on your 29th birthday but I figure that Jeff and I are such procrastinators that we needed to give ourselves two years. (As it is I don't think we'll even have our lists put together before Thanksgiving and we started this on Oct 8.) On each table and inside I had the jist of the project explained on signs I created.



Underneath I had a couple of yarn braded lines with mini clothes pins where everyone could clip their papers from the tables with their ideas of what Jeff should do before he turns 30.



I like this because it kept the conversation on Jeff during dinner and made it feel like this really was all for him on his special day.

After dinner we went back inside where I had a couple games planned. We played 3 different Minute to Win It games: Chocolate Unicorn, Back Flip, and some balloon game for the kids. These seem a little silly at first, but they are actually really fun to play, and I tried to pick games where people could play and still keep their dignity in tack.





If you are really prepared and tech savvy you can even hook your laptop to your tv and watch the instructional videos that minute to win it has on their website. (I couldn't find the right cables that day.) We weren't tech savvy but I did make little prizes that correlated with Jeff and each game.



After the games and while we waited for the cupcakes to finish being frosted I read out the cards everyone had written about what Jeff should include on his 30 x 30 list. Here are some of my favorites:

1. Graduate college (mine)
2. Die your hair purple with yellow strips (Jade)
3. Make a baby; potty train them; read a book on how to raise a child (Sage)
4.Give your wife 30 gifts (Nanette)
5. Write your own comic book instead of reading so many (Jade)
6. Go 30 days without playing video games (Nanette)
7. Vote Republican (Nanette)

Finally, it was just time for some jello cupcakes and conversation.





Later, I tried to clean up really quick, most the kids met up to go to a movie that night. I had a really good time, and even though I think I could have made some changes to make everything run smoother, it turned out really well. Most importantly I think Jeff enjoyed himself. For our 30th birthday's we want to take a big trip to together, so a nice big bash for 28 was supper fun to put on.


(I'm an aweful wife, with all my running around, this is the best shot I got of him all night.)

***I got some of my b-day decorating ideas from posts on perfect party blog***