Behind the Scenes on Party Day

We were busy Saturday morning getting the final items ready for the party. First, Mom's friend, whose daughter baked the cakes, delivered them. The top was a yellow cake, the bottom "75" chocolate.

When we discovered we didn't have any silverware caddies, we made some out of 6- and 4-pack containers:

We set up the beer and wine tent in a spot that was sure to be shady in the afternoon. As you can see there was some quality control going along with the tapping of the kegs.

Second small tent for water and pop/soda/Cokes. We used the hand truck to haul everything up from the walk-out basement.

Around 11am, we set up the big tent --

-- and then arranged the tables and chairs

It took 2 big ladders and a lot of tape to hang this great sign my sister-in-law and nephews made:

My long-time friend, Maura (I've mentioned her often), helped tremendously with the party, both providing lots of advice and asking great questions during the planning and coming the day of to make sure everything ran smoothly. Her daughter, Christine, greeted all the guests and had them sign the book and make their nametags. 

And her son, Justin, helped with directing traffic and organizing all the parking across Mom's yard and four of her neighbor's lawns. He had some great nametags, but no one was fooled by the one that said "valet" - he'll be 13 in July... too young to drive. :) We are really grateful to Maura and the kids for all their help!!