I like planning parties, so I was happy to be the main planner for my mother-in-law's 60th bash. I had plenty of help. First of all, unlike the parties I plan for my kids, this party had a real budget and that is a big help! My father-in-law took care of getting tables and chairs, tents, and a water slide. My sister-in-law arranged the caterer and photographer. (See I told you this party had a budget.) And I took care of all the little details - all things decorative, all things related to the invites (I made them.), buying the plates/utensils/napkins/candles/etc., and all things dessert.
Because we had a photographer, I have pretty much zero pictures. But we'll make do with what I got.
The invites:

We made the decision to do the party only about 5 weeks ago, so in order to get the invites out right away I had no choice but to make them myself. I just printed them on my computer, stamped the blue stars on, and then put blue and red string zig-zagging on the top. Finally, I mounted it on red card stock.
The birthday cake:

I designed it, but Publix created it. And since they had zero ideas/pictures of a Fourth of July cake when I came in, I sure hope they took a picture, because I'd say it turned out pretty nice! The candles on top are sparkler candles. I'd never used sparkler candles before and didn't know how they worked. Now I know: you don't blow them out. They just have to burn out on their own. Still super cute and perfect for a 4th of July birthday.
Next the fruit pizza:

Here's the recipe. You could obviously change up the fruit/color scheme to go with any holiday or party color scheme. I could see doing a star out of a kiwi surrounded by blueberries of an Under-the-Sea party, call it a star fish. I need to get a round stone (this one is my M-I-L's) because I want to make more fruit pizzas!

We kept the table all red, white, and blue. The fork holders...

... were just tea tins I had with scrap book paper mod-podged onto them.
But over on another counter I had chess cake.

I made two batches and they all went! I also had an aunt bring cookies and then a guest brought a coconut cake that I guess is her signature dish, so it was quite a dessert buffet!
As for decorations...
With a 4th of July birthday, patriotic items are kinda my M-I-L's thing, so she's got red, white, and blue knickknacks all over making the inside done. I did have a table when you first came in set up for guests to sign in. Instead of a guest book I had stars for people to sign. Our main birthday gift to my M-I-L is that I will create a scrapbook of the party and the signed stars with go throughout the book.

Some pages were already done because I had family members create a page for my M-I-L and those will be in there too.
Outside we had buffet set up - I just had white table clothes, star confetti and patriotic cutlery caddies on both ends.
Then we had seven small round tables. For these I cut plastic blue table clothes in half and wrapped the table (taping underneath) in the center I had small globes with white daisies and carnations and a patriotic pin wheel. Around the globes I had facts about 1951. I called these my fact bubbles. Unfortunately I didn't get any pics of the finished product, just one as I was going along...

Oh and every table had confetti. My poor father-in-law is going to find stars in his grass forever.
In the front yard the main event was the water slide.

Uh, it was big. And scarier than I expected because those of us who actually weigh something got going fast and slammed hard at the bottom. We only wanted it for the party but the company that owns it wasn't open July 4th so they dropped it off Sunday afternoon and won't pick up till Tuesday. All my slide pics are from Sunday. We've gotten a lot of use out of this slide.
Between the pool and the slide the kids got pretty wore out. Toby went down for a nap during the party and slept about three hours! (Toby didn't actually go on the slide on Monday. Kevin took him down a few times on Sunday but he never liked it.) Without picture taking duty or Toby duty, this mama had time to relax by the pool!
It was a lunch time party so fireworks weren't part of the plan.
Here's one last pic of Kevin and I with the birthday gal (taken Sunday after church):

A big happy birthday to Mom/Teresa/Gran! I'm pretty sure she had a great day.