Mom’s 70th Birthday

On Monday my mom turned 70!!! Much like Isaac’s recent milestone birthday, we had a much smaller, quieter quarantine celebration than we had originally planned. It was a lovely day, filled with intention, quality time, and flowers!

The kids and I had such a great time making decorations in my mom’s favorite colors.

I found the tutorial for these fabulous watercolor paper plate flowers here. We added glitter and used pinking shears on a few to give them our own flair.

We painted large sheets of paper with acrylic paint to make the paper chains. To achieve the stripy textured look on some, we pressed sheets of blank white paper onto the papers with wet paint, patted down firmly, and then peeled them apart. Once the paint had dried, I cut the paper into strips and started gluing!

The kids designed the sweetest cards for their Nana! Cole made her a “Coley flower and a Nana flower” with glitter. He was so proud to do all the drawing, gluing and glittering himself. Isla spent several days creating the most precious illustration of Nana and herself working together in the garden. Every detail was included, right down to Nana’s toenail polish!

Isaac drew our card and I hand cut the birthday sign. Mojanana is the nickname Mom uses with us, as it includes all the names we call her (Mom-Jan-Nana).

The birthday girl requested a favorite dinner from her childhood and ice cream sundaes for dessert. YUM!

After dinner was present time! The four of us worked together to create a gift that would honor Mom and her milestone birthday. Our hope was to help her recognize how much good she has contributed to the world through her thoughtfulness, creativity, hard work, selflessness, determination, integrity, patience, love, and humor. We made her a jar of 70 Things: A collection of meaningful memories, lessons learned, and qualities we admire about her. We all sat around the table together as Mom read through each item, laughing and reminiscing. It was a perfect way to wrap up our celebration!

Happy, happy birthday, Mom! Cheers to many more happy years! We love you!!!