My friend who serves in the Young Women's Presidency with me {she's the President} turned 50 a few weeks ago. Three days before our activity the week of her birthday, it hit me.
Liz is turning 50!
I couldn't let the chance to throw a surprise party for her pass up. So I frantically - in the middle of a ridiculous crazy week at work - searched for ideas.
And then I remembered....
The Red Hat Society. Fabulous fun after 50 for only the most fantastically sassy and fun women. The Red Hat Society is an actual organization. According to the all knowing Wikipedia, the founder of the Society is artist Sue Ellen Cooper. In 1997, Cooper gave a friend a 55th birthday gift consisting of a red bowler purchased at an antique store along with a copy of Jenny Joseph's poem "Warning," copied above. The gift was then repeated several times and eventually a group of the women bought purple outfits and held a tea party on April 25, 1998. Now, you can find local Red Hat chapters all over the world. Women over 50 wear red hats and purple outfits to all chapter events. And women under 50 wear pink and lavendar until they turn 50. They have tea parties, socials, you name it! Doesn't it sound fabulous?
But with my lack of planning, it was a little harder than I thought finding all the necessary accessories for a proper Red Hat party. I searched as many stores as my time allowed looking for a red hat. Apparently it's not red hat season yet. I ended up getting a plain white hat and red spray paint. Accented of course with some purple feathery things and ribbon.
I also found some red visors and purple boas and pom poms to decorate some hats for the girls. They had no clue what the Red Hat Society was.... and thought I was crazy when I made them dress up in red hats, purple boas, and red necklaces to surprise Liz. Luckily, Liz knew what the Red Hat Society was and laughed when she opened the door to her Red Hat surprise!
Yummm... who doesn't love a good Texas cake? Especially with cute birthday candles. Which Liz couldn't blow out in one breath! She's old now, remember.
It was fun. Even when we told the girls we were going to the store {as planned before the surprise party} with our red hats and purple boas... they may have been slightly embarrassed by me. The girls and leaders came up with 50 things we love about Liz which I put on a big card. She said she'd been having a bad day and was so grateful to have this reminder of everything we see as a strength in her. It made me feel good, like I actually followed through on a prompting for once!
I hope someone throws me a Red Hat party when I'm "old."
