Happy Birthday Mom!

My mom was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer only a few days after her birthday last year.   After surgery, an infection, and 6 months of many various reactions to chemotherapy, she is cancer free!!  :)  

Follow her blog at: http://imasemicolon.blogspot.com/

I wanted her birthday to be special this year.  So, we decided to throw a Cruise themed birthday party.  

My first purchase for planning the party was this, $11.99 back drop that I found on Target.com:

 http://www.target.com/p/cruise-ship-deck-backdrop-30/-/A-10882467#prodSlot=medium_1_4&term=cruise

I was shocked at how big it was for only $11.99!  I was definitely pleased with this purchase.  We had the party in our garage, so we used it to cover up some of the garagey-ness of the location. 

 

I found this idea on Pinterest and thought it was too cute! 

 http://www.pinterest.com/pin/112941903129857699/

Here's my version of it.  Let me just say, it is much harder to thread anything through a Life Saver than one would think.  I only did 12 of these the day of.  This is a project you would want to start sooner than a couple of hours before the party.  

Here are the tables decorated.  I used some of the jutte and white wine bottles that I have been working on for the wedding.  It gave me a good idea of how the tables are going to look in October!

Here is our fruit table:

I LOVED this watermelon "charcoal grill" that mom made.  She cut he watermelon in half.  Then, scooped out all of the melon and put blackberries inside.  The "grill's" legs are carrot sticks.  Then, she stuck skewers inside the watermelon and made ca-bob fruit sticks to put on top.

She also made this carrot and green pepper "palm tree."  It was hard to keep it standing up inside the coleslaw.  We would have to be more creative on getting it to stand up if we made this for another dish.