Driven to Birthday Board Distraction

When I'm stressing about stuff

 (like getting ready to go on vacation, preparing for company, 

and picking up a new kitten in two weeks), 

I like to add more stress,

so I save important projects for the last minute. 

In fact, I welcome distractions that allow me to escape, 

which is why I started my mom's 85th surprise birthday present

 the day before I had to present it to her.

I started with this creative pin from Pinterest and a big bag of supplies.

[By the way, you can buy a board like that in the pin for $65 on Etsy. Just click through.]

First, Mr.4444 and Kendall helpfully drilled holes in wooden disks for me. 

While they did that, I painted the base of the project 

and individual wooden letters of the word "Celebration."

I also hand-painted the letters in our family name across the board 

while staring back and forth from the board to my computer, 

from which I copied the font.

Then I painted the disks, let them dry, wrote names on one side and birth dates on the other,

and let them dry some more.

After that, I flipped them over and did the other sides.

This basically took from about 8:30pm to 3:30am.

It was very messy work.

Of course, I also had to collect my entire family's birth dates, 

which isn't easy when you have 59 family members.
I included spouses, children, and grandchildren,

except step-grandkids (who are all adults, btw).

I hope I didn't forget anyone!

In the morning, I cleaned up mistakes and/or went over colors that weren't solid enough,
sprayed the board and all of the disks (both sides) 

with Modge Podge and assembled my creation,
which took a few more hours.

I don't want to share the entire length of the gift here*, because it would involve sharing my mom's last name, and I don't want to do that, so here's half of the almost-finished project.

I say half-finished, because I ran out of materials, 

and (oddly enough) craft stores aren't open all night. 

I still have to add twenty more disks. 

Mom loved the gift anyway and let me take it back with me to finish.

After all, she said, "I've waited this long!" (She's so funny.)

Besides, she had a lot of other presents to open, not to mention a delicious birthday cake to eat!

And now, back to my to-do list!

P.S. #1  Were I to do this project again, I would follow my nephew's suggestion and paint all the members in each branch of the family tree the same color. What a great (too late) idea, right?! I offered to send it home with him to redo for me in his spare time, but he declined; imagine that.haha

P.S. #2  *If you're not a stalker and would like to see a photo of the whole finished project, email me and I'll send you one; it looks amazing!!

P.S. #3  Yes, we do have a family member named Yes; he's my niece's husband. His parents were hippies; need I say more?

P.S #4 Want me to make one of these for your family? I will happily do so for the low price (materials and labor included) of $400.haha