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Over the Hill Party -50yr- Hollywood Oscar

April 2006

Aimee in Grandview,Tx USA

Special Mention

Hollywood "Over The Hill" Party   For my dad's 50th birthday we wanted to throw a party that would be as special as he is so after much thought we decided to go with a Hollywood theme and let him really be a STAR for a day!  With 3 children and 2 "child-in-laws" planning the party we were able to pull each of our talents together and do most of the work ourselves. 

The invitations were made home-made by my sis-in-law and were printed on professional glossy paper for a more elegant look. She put a theater style red curtain for the main background with metalic gold stars and the words: "A Must See Film Lewis shines in the starring role of his new film, "Over the Hill" Please come help Lewis celebrate hitting the big 5-0 at his movie premiere on location at__________" And ofcourse we had everyone keep it a secret!!  As a coincidence the party room we rented already had a stage so we used it as a main focus of the party. I purchased a HUGE amount of black butcher paper from the teacher resource room at the school for very little cost ( I think it was about 25 cents a ft.) We used 2 pieces to double the height of it and cut it into rolling "hollywood hills" I used 8in high white die cut letters (free from resource rm./I provided paper)to spell HOLLYWOOD across the hills.

We then added black tulle (aka net) and bunched it up a little to look like a night time sky and added gold metalic cardboard stars (card and party factory) We then added a red crepe paper to look like a theater curtain (we found large crepe paper sheets at Hobby Lobby for $1.99 per pkg. and used 2 pks., 1 for the top of the curtain and 1/2 for each side) We were surprised at how well it turned out and the guests went on and on about how realistic the hills looked. 

The table decorations were elegant but simple. We used solid black table cloths with red glitter shred and gold "50" confetti sprinkled across it. In the center were personalized gold star candle votives (oriental trading co.) with the words "Lewis' 50th A Bryant Kid's Production" and the date.  The party room also had a very elegant antique-style bar so we purchased plastic champagne and martini glasses from oriental trading co. and the guests could visit the bar for champagne(cherry 7-up) or Martinis (gingerale w/ olives on the glass!) We also had a large sign that read "Pop-corn 25 cents) This was intended to make it look more like an authentic movie premiere. The popcorn was served in red and white sriped popcorn sacks and we handed them out just before the premiere. 

As dad arrived(for what he THOUGHT was a craft fair for mom!) Everyone yelled and shot off loud confetti poppers. He was SO shocked!! We gave him a cane and escorted him over to his comfy old-man chair. We dressed him up in ugly "old man" pajamas (over his other clothes ofcourse :)! )and made him wear house shoes, reading glasses on a chain, a gag gift style hat that said "yield to aches and pains" a black rose boutineere and an over the hill flashing light up pin. He was actually a good sport about this and even hammed it up a bit.  We started by having a mock award ceremony like the Oscars and thanked everyone for joining us at our "1ST annual Bryant kids award ceremony".

We wore evening gowns and suits we had bought ahead of time at resale shops, thrift stores,ect. We periodically drew guests "movie ticket" stubs throughout the night as a way to hand out door prizes ( which were all gag gifts: over hill back scratcher, hearing aid, prune juice,ect)We gave out a few silly awards to family members and then surprised mom with the "best supporting actress" award and presented her w/ a small gold trophy (from OTC). She was truly speechless! But ofcourse we made her get on stage  and give an acceptance speech anyway. Next was a musical performance by a "special preschool rock artist" (Lewis' Grandson!) who sang a tribute called "Paw-paw is the birthday boy" This was copied off the internet and is to the tune of Mary had a little lamb. The final award was for "Best Senior Actor of the Year" I introduced this award by saying " Although there are several senior actors who have worked hard on their films this year, only one senior actor has given 110% all the time regardless of aches, and pains and memory loss, and because of his effort, this years best senior actor is LEWIS!!!

Everyone stood and cheered as he came onto stage to give his "speech" He was given a gold plastic "oscar" trophy (M&N International)Then my brother once again thanked everyone for coming and invited them to stay for Lewis' movie premiere of his just released film "Over the Hill"  Since the theme was obviously Over the Hill, We decided to make that the title of the famous "movie" he was to star in. (which was a slide show movie my sister-in-law created on her software at her work that lasted about a 1/2 hr.) The slide show movie ended up being the HIGHLIGHT of the party and was a huge hit with family and friends alike! We included photos of him as a baby; growing up; dating mom and their wedding photos; with each of his children as babies, at their graduations, birthdays, weddings,ect.; him with all of his nieces and nephews; photos of him and his grandson and of course we threw in a couple of "silly" clips of him playing dress-up with the kids, napping and just being himself. This was a wonderful way for everyone to reminisce of good times, everyone had their turn laughing, and most shed a few happy tears before it was finished. 

Then we had finger foods and cake( which had the red curtain on it just like the invites) and read "Over the hill, starring Lewis" the Over the Hill was actually candles and we had gum paste gold sparkle stars in the background. We wanted to include his age w/out over doing the cake so we put 50 on one of the larger stars.  In order to include everyone we gave family and friends a chance to each go on stage and say either one of their fondest memories of times with Lewis or just what they love most about him. The responses were each unique and some old time friends even shared stories I had never heard before. He had stories from his nieces saying " I loved always staying the summer with "uncle Lewie" or "I remember when uncle Lewie took me fishing" My grandparents told stories of their first thoughts of him when he first started to date my mom.

Again, the stories made us laugh AND cry. Dad was thankful that we included this and it was an easy way to make everyone special to him part of his special day.  As everyone left, they were given a keepsake keychain that looked like a hollywood clapper and we passed out the personalized votives to his brothers and sister. It took a while to plan this party, but it was tons of fun to prepare for and we will never forget the look on dad's face when he walked into the room!!

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