30 Years of Love

So... I blew my New Year's Resolution of posting on here once a week... but I had a good excuse, I promise!! I've been busy planning a surprise get- together for my parents' 30th anniversary! It was TONS of fun to plan, and they were so surprised! It was pretty low- key, and it was just family, but it was a lot of fun to plan something to honor two of my favorite people. 30 years is a long time to stay together, and they are still very in love with each other. It's so neat to see how much they enjoy just being around each other now that they have the house all to themselves. I'm very proud of them & grateful for the example that they show!

I have to admit, I had to tone down my party planning OCD when it came to this little shindig... I love to try to come up with ways to "totally transform" spaces and make every single little detail "go" with the theme... BUT, my parents are not those kind of people. And... I didn't want to be really stressed out about something that was supposed to be a fun and relaxed time. So, I decided that we'd go with a green & blue theme (my parents' favorite colors)... and candy!! Lots of candy!! ;) The table ended up looking a little more "Easter" than I wanted it to, but I think it still was very pretty!

Something else really fun that we did was make a banner saying "30 Years of Love" and clothespinned it up with pictures and balloons. It turned out so nice! (My nephew Ryan helped me with the pictures, and my brother, Robert, and  my husband, Nathanael, helped with the balloons... and tons more, but more about that later!). I really love how it turned out!

A BIG part of any Perkins family gathering is food... and this food was delicious!! My brother grilled steaks and hot dogs, my sister made potato salad, and I made a couple of desserts (apple pie and Tom Selleck). It was all kinds of delicious! Plus, we all ate more than our fair share of the candy scattered on the tables, so we were all so stuffed!

After dinner, we moved to the carport and watched a slideshow of pictures from my parents' lives together. The slideshow was 15 minutes long, so I'll spare you the extended version, but here's a little sample of the "movie." The original had tons more pictures and even a video, all set to some good ol' bluegrass music.

It was a great night! It's always fun to get together with family, but it was especially sweet to be able to honor my parents. I can't wait until their 50th!

A HUGE thank you to Robert & Amanda for hosting the party at their house... especially since Amanda is about 7 1/2 months pregnant... with twins!! They did a bunch of work and preparation to make our little get- together possible. Robert did the grilling and did a bunch of setup work, and made sure we had the projector all ready to go.
Thank you to Amanda, Luanne, and Valerie for sending pics and video for the slideshow (and Noni for letting me "steal" some pics off her facebook). Also, thank you to Valerie bringing the potato salad & chips- yummy!
A BIG thanks to my husband for putting up with weeks of obsessive worrying about whether everything would go smoothly... and all the work he did at the actual party... and for taking the pictures!

Like I said, it was so much fun, and I know my parents enjoyed themselves. I even saw my dad crying a little during the slideshow... ;) I'm so glad that we could all make this sweet memory together!