Ideas for my mom's 80th birthday

My mom turns 80 on June 1st and I've been toying with some ideas.

What I would like to do is invite one of my aunts and uncles along with a cousin and her husband over to my house for a cookout. I was thinking of one or so of my SIL's too. The obstacle is that my mom's relatives live in the same town they do which is about 2 hours away. I think my cousin would be willing to drive over though. (as well as my parents)

I'm not sure on gift ideas though. They just came back from a month at my sisters and did a fair amount of shopping. I was thinking perhaps some sort of spa treatments.

Any ideas would be great!

I'm not sure if I understood, but does your mom live two hours away? I would have her celebration at the location that she prefers. (My mom would prefer a quiet celebration with less people and my dad would prefer a party. So I would choose based on that.)

For my dad's 80th birthday, we had a huge party with a mariachi, DJ, caterer, bartender, and photographer. My dad enjoyed it, but complained that the party wasn't held at his own house. (He also complained about having to pose for a million billion photos, but really enjoyed the slideshow someone put together.)

For his 81st birthday,we went to a restaurant just down the street from his house and he seemed happy with that too.

Yes my parents live two hours away. My parents live in a smaller rented townhouse so cooking out wouldn't really be an option esp if it rains! The dining out options are fairly limited too.

My cousin has her son living only about 10-15 minutes away from me in case they want to visit but she also wants to see my gardens as does my mom's sister.

My sister won't be able to come to Wisconsin for her birthday however.

Have you thought of doing a nice album or scrapbook for your mom's birthday gift. Sort of document her life with photo's, letters or other keepsakes that you or your family have of her. Even if you don't have a lot of personalized items it is easy to get info about events that happen when she was growing up, pictures of fashions, etc etc ....

Sorry that your sis can't make it. One of the really nice things we did when Mom turned 80 was hire a professional photographer to take family photos and portraits. It was the first time everyone was together in the family home for who knows how long. It made for a great keepsake.

We also did a smaller immediate family dinner and then a larger family-and-friends brunch the next day.

This may not be appropriate, depending on your mom's personality -- but y'know what my 83-year-old mom wants for her birthday? A trip to GlamourShots!

Seriously -- being pampered and made extra-pretty and photographed like a model, then taken out for a fabulous dinner somewhere... I can see where a mom might enjoy that.

For my mom's 70th birthday (her birthday was June 7th), my sister made her 70 tulip decorations and stuck them in her front yard (in the wee hours of the morning). The tulips were made out of a foam core material and mounted on wooden sticks. Mom got such a kick out of waking up to an instant flower garden in her front yard!

We threw her a party at my sister's house (most convenient location), and invited just about everyone that she ever knew. She knew of the party, the surprise was all the people we invited. We took her phone book and looked up people we knew she hadn't seen in a long time. We also went to her church and found a friend to get her church friends to attend. Then we invited the friends we had growing up that used to hang out at the house. All in all there were over 100 people there. She had a marvelous time.

And not to be depressing about this, but mom didn't live to see her 71st birthday, so we are so happy that we did that for her. At that age, you can't take anything for granted.

Originally Posted by GailC

Yes my parents live two hours away. My parents live in a smaller rented townhouse so cooking out wouldn't really be an option esp if it rains! The dining out options are fairly limited too.

My cousin has her son living only about 10-15 minutes away from me in case they want to visit but she also wants to see my gardens as does my mom's sister.

My sister won't be able to come to Wisconsin for her birthday however.

Click to expand...

Oh, I see. I'm sorry your sister won't be able to make it. (If I wanted to have a cookout for my mom, I couldn't have it at her place either. She lives in a large, closed apartment building.)

I agree with tierre0 that a scrapbook/album might be a nice gift for her. My dad really liked his slide show, and he very rarely expresses his feelings.