Typical birthday party decorations include balloons, streamers, and confetti

My sisters and I planned a surprise party for our dad’s birthday. He had not been feeling well over the past few months so we thought a party would help cheer him up. We decided to invite relatives as well as some of his friends. We rented the fellowship area of the local church. Mom and Dad go to mass on Saturday evenings so we knew that it would be easy to get him to the fellowship area without him being suspicious. We wanted to make this a festive occasion so we decided to use party decorations in the fellowship area.

Each of us has planned many parties over the years so we all had party decorations that we had stored. We decided to get together a week before the party to see what we would need for the space and to bring what party decorations we had on hand to see what would work and what we would need to purchase. I found that I had happy birthday signs, balloons and party hats in my box of party decorations. I brought the decorations with me to the fellowship area. My sisters also had signs as well as birthday streamers and more balloons. We decided that we would place the hats on the tables along with curling ribbons to create center pieces. We rented a helium tank to blow up the balloons and we ordered fresh flower bouquets for the food table and the table that we put the cake on. The only thing that we needed to purchase was birthday napkins, because the fellowship area supplies plates and silverware.

The day of the party we blew up the balloons and decorated the tables using the party decorations that we had found at home. Once mom and dad were at the church service we placed the birthday signs outside as well as around the fellowship area. We had asked the priest to tell dad that he needed his help in the fellowship area after the service was over. We were all in the fellowship area with the lights out when dad walked in and the priest turned the lights on. It took him several minutes to realize that the party was for him. He was very surprised. My mom was pleased with the party decorations as well as the food that we had made for the event. We had not allowed her to help with the arrangements because we thought dad would get suspicious.

The friends and relatives had a great time visiting and dad enjoyed his evening being the center of attention. We had kept the party decorations simple so the clean up took only a few minutes. We had so much fun we decided we will try to surprise mom on her birthday.