Nancy's 50th Birthday Bash

My mom, Nancy Lou Wiltbank Johnson, would have turned 50-years-old this last Saturday. In her honor, my sweet cousin, Michelle Smith, threw an epic 50th Birthday Bash. First of all, if you need a party planner, I highly, HIGHLY recommend hiring Michelle. The party was incredible. Absolutely incredible.

Upon entering the party hall, guests were greeted with by this welcome sign:

Then it was food time.

Here are the guests who attended:

Clint's in-laws

Kirsten's in-laws

My in-laws in the middle left.

After we had time to settle in and get our food, Michelle began a little presentation for the guests.

She mentioned to me that a mother's greatest pride is her children, so she asked that we all share something unique to us so that the guests could learn more about my mom through her kids. 

For my presentation, John and Abe did a little dance.

I should have stopped it there, but then I thought it would be a good idea to share something that I wrote since I like writing. So what did I decide to share? Well, I wanted something light and fun, and something that highlighted how much I love my family. So I chose to read...Abe's birth story. A birth story!! I remembered it was kind of a funny story and it didn't cross my mind that maybe I should read the story beforehand to make sure it was appropriate for the occasion. About 3 sentences in I suddenly realized what I was doing. I was reading a birth story to a crowd of people. While they were eating! And it was like 10 pages long! It was about that part of the story where I start personifying my cervix as a southern black women with an attitude that I start trying to figure how to somehow end the story, but I was only dilated at 1 cm at this point in the medical thriller, and you can't end a birth story at a 1 cm dilation! So then I start making plans to suddenly take off in that get away car that should ALWAYS be around for me since I have these awkward moments A LOT. But then the saving grace came when I realized that everyone in the crowd was my family and they're all forced to be related to me. Baha! Suckers! So I skipped over a lot of the gruesome details until I got to the part where I was photosynthesizing with florescent lights, and then pop! Abe was born. Whew! After that I crawled under the table and hid behind my camera for the rest of the night. 

Luckily, Kirsten saved the day and had her cute kids come on stage and show off their intelligence and cuteness. They recited articles of faith and danced around and Kirsten's pretty much an awesome teacher and she has stink'n cute kids. 

And then Clint showed off his hot wife and cute baby and played some oldies on the guitar.

He tots rocked it.

And Caleb did a sweet magic trick. Milo loaned him a quarter (and for all you skeptics out there, Caleb did NOT consult with Milo before the show!!)

Andre is on a mission so he couldn't make it to the party, but don't worry. His head was there.

So that was the presentation. You should be sad if you missed it because, clearly, it was a top notch performance.

On to the cake!

Michelle definitely brought a huge german chocolate cake - my mom's favorite treat and her traditional birthday cake for as long as I can remember.

Caleb blew out the candles and everyone dug in! 

(Except for me and my no sweet buddies because, yes, we're still doing that no sugar thing :( boohoo)

After cake it was time to PAR-TAY!

I'm not exactly sure when it started, but my mom took over a hat collection that was passed down to her from Nan (mom's grandma). During my 2-year-old birthday party, she pulled out her hat collection and made all her guests put on funny hats and they all took pictures and had a blast dressing up. And after that it seemed like there were a few other hat parties. She LOVED dressing up and wearing hats...so...

We absolutely had a hat party. And a photo booth! Pictures from the booth will be shared later this week :)

My grandma brought an old TV and VCR so we could watch a video recording of one of the first hat parties, along with a lot of other happy memories.

And of course there was a "used bookstore" where guests could browse through my mom's old books and take home a few that spoke to them. Her library lives on! (You can read more about her library here).

We used my mom's prints of famous paintings as decorations for the party and friends and family took home a piece if it spoke to them. Don't worry, I took pictures of all the art beforehand and I'll probably post them here eventually. But we couldn't keep it all! Not enough wall space! Seeing the paintings walk off with people who I knew would appreciate their beauty was much better than dropping them off at DI. 

Each person had a story behind why they chose their painting...

Nobody wanted the naked people picture. What the heck?

There were games....

The party photographer: 

And just in case you've been missing Andre in these pictures, don't worry, he was there in spirit.

And there were conversation prompts on the tables so everyone could engage in deep, philosophical, mind bending conversations. 

And then, of course, there was dancing!

It was a little too much for some people:

All in all, it was fun to get together for some fun and to share memories and a laugh. 

At one point I glanced across the room and saw an eerie close up of my mom's beautiful eyes looking out the old analog television set.

It was almost as if she were haunting her own party by coming through the static of the TV like a poltergeist. Which would, of course, send shrieks through the party hall, put the children all in tears, and it would be the most dazzlingly terrifying, most creatively epic, most over-the-line inappropriate, and most flaringly theatric entrance to a 50th birthday party anyone's every witnessed. Which is, of course, absolutely how my mom would make her appearance from the "other side."

I rolled my eyes. "Mom, please."

But the party was so perfect. So exactly like how her 50th birthday party would have been if she would have been the one to throw it, that it just seemed like if you glanced across the room at just the right moment you might see her in a deep, philosophical conversation with Jill and Alison...

Or hear her laughing hysterically with her brothers in her loud, contagious cackle.

The zany fun, the hilarious memories. I don't know. It just felt like maybe you could give her a call later in the week when all the party hullabaloo was over, you know, to really catch up. 

Look. I'm not making any implications as to whether my mom "was" or "was not" haunting her own birthday party. Because, that's obviously ridiculous, right?! Ha-ha! Hahahahah! ha. ha. huh. 

...right? 

Anyways -

All I'm saying is, I think Michelle said it best when she spoke to my mom during the dinner presentation, 

"Nancy, you're still the life of the party even though you can't be here."

Thank you all for coming to celebrate the happy, fun-filled legacy my mom left behind! It meant so much! And thank you, Michelle, for throwing one heck of a party!