For years I’ve been telling my children that they could plan our 50^th birthday parties. Sure enough, the time finally came last week for my husband’s big celebration. On his actual birthday, we ate dinner out as a family but the following Saturday, his parents, his brother and his brother’s family joined us for a coffee-themed party. My daughter Katie loves to follow various blogs and gleans many terrific craft ideas from Pinterest so by the time the party rolled around, I don’t think she even knew where all the ideas had come from or what she had come up with on her own but no matter how you slice it, it was a terrific party.

Events like this always provide a great excuse to add equipment and supplies to the entertaining closet so even though we borrowed a few things, we bought a large black tablecloth (which has already been loaned out for a cousin’s party) and two dozen black napkins. The menus were so easy to make – I didn’t even bother using my Creative Memories Storybook software; Word was all I needed. The key was to make the type gray because black would have been too harsh (also, I had been given instructions by the event planner to make it as seen on Pinterest). I won’t go into much detail on the main course but let’s just say the Grilled Pork Chops were a big hit and the potatoes, green beans and salad were also very good.

The centerpieces, consisting of various glass containers with green marbles from a dollar store and goldfish, were a last minute idea that I recalled a friend telling me about many years ago. On Friday, the day before the party, my children bought thirteen goldfish. By morning, only two were alive. So it fell on me to go back into town to buy more. Two pet stores and twenty goldfish later, we had enough for the seven “aquariums.”

For several months before the party, my daughter and I would ask for freebies every time we bought a drink at a Starbucks. I was surprised at what all we got just because we asked. A day or two before the party, my daughter ran into a store for a last-minute purchase and after she explained what we were doing, the clerk offered her several posters on the condition that she wouldn’t tell where she got them. This was a bonus we were not counting on! We bought the apron on eBay for about $10 so overall, our theme items didn’t cut into the budget.

The dessert table was the feature of the party! Katie went to a ton of work to make two different kinds of cupcakes each kind with unique filling and all topped with a very rich buttercream frosting to look like the whipped cream on a frappuccino. I made the cupcake wrappers using CM. The cupcakes were a bigger hit than the birthday cake.

Chocolate covered raisins and chocolate covered espresso beans added an opportunity to munch throughout the evening. I made the labels using CM. Using a Starbucks logo, it was easy to block out their lettering and add what I wanted. I trust the trademark police won’t be knocking on our door seeing as we didn’t profit from the altered logo.

Katie made a quiz with questions about her daddy and about Starbucks. The two who answered the most questions correctly, won Starbucks gift cards.

As our family members were leaving, they each received a water bottle with a Starbucks Refreshers drink packet tied to it. This is one of Starbucks newest products and I think they taste quite good.

Katie put a lot of time and effort into planning and executing this event and it was all very worthwhile. Her (50-year-old) daddy loved it.