My Dad Turned 60

And my Mom planned the best surprise ever!  Over the past year, my parents, my dad especially, have developed a love for the music duo of Danika Holmes and Jeb Hart.  Jeb plays an awesome guitar, which is what my dad loves, and Danika sings.  They currently live in Nashville, but are from this area and come back to perform quite a bit.  At one of their local performances, my mom learned they do house concerts.  She thought it was the perfect idea for my dad for his 60th birthday.

The celebration happened about a week before his actual birthday on Mother's Day weekend.  It was easy to tell him we were coming to visit to celebrate Mother's Day.  We decided not to have a huge crowd jump out and surprise him, but to just have Jeb and Danika show up at the house and start setting up for the concert.  It was so awesome to see the look on my Dad's face when they walked up onto the deck.  He was totally blown away!

This picture is a still frame captured from my video camera, but you can still see the surprise and joy on my Dad's face.  We didn't want the big concert crowd to show up right away because we knew Jeb and Danika would need to set up and we knew my Dad would want to chat with them one on one.  What we didn't know was that Jeb would give my Dad a mini guitar lesson during that time!  Bonus surprise!

While they played, the rest of us worked hard to set everything up for the 40ish guests coming to view the concert.  It was crazy how my Mom made food and prepared the house as much as possible without my Dad knowing.  She even stored stuff in the neighbor's refrigerator.  It was totally worth it!  Pretty soon, guests started arriving and my Dad was in shocked and surprised mode again.  Many people came and he was so honored they were there.  He had family, friends, and co-workers from long ago, as well as current friends and co-workers.  My Dad was so blown away by everyone who kept showing up.  It was fun!

Then they sang.  And they were really good!  This was the first time we got to hear them and it was great!  They are working hard to make it in the music industry, and I would say they are well on their way.  One of their original tracks was recently in a movie!  One big perk is their playing of the song, "Forever Young."  That song has always been a special song for my Dad and I.  I remember playing it on cassette tape over and over again.  It was the song we danced to for the father/daughter dance at my wedding.  Of course we were both crying as they sang it.

It was really fun how my parents' basement was transformed into a social concert lounge.  People sat around, ate, drank, and enjoyed the music.  It was such a good day!  I had my friend Whitney make some special cakes for the occasion.  She is quite talented!

The quoted phrases are my Dad's two favorite songs to play on the guitar.  And the guitar cake was a perfect replica of my Dad's Martin guitar.  What a special day it was!  I think Jeb and Danika really enjoyed it, as well.  All of the audience had a great time and my Dad certainly felt quite loved.  We finished our birthday gift off with a book from Aria and I called, "60 Uses for Papa" with 60 pictures of Papa and Aria doing their favorite things.

A great husband/dad/papa only turns 60 once, so I'm glad it could be such a joyous event!