When my mother turned 70, we gave her a surprise party and wrote and performed a little musical of her life. She definitely loved that! But our family is into stuff like that. Yours may be more into art, writing, etc. For my 50th birthday, my husband contacted everyone he could think of and asked them to contribute a little anecdote for an album. He put photos in the back. I adore it. I recently did a "this is your life" slide show for a party honoring someone. Her family gave me photos. But in addition to the real photos from her life, we put in lots of downloaded photos with her face photoshopped in (always the same photo of her face, and always just a little too large). For example, when the narration was about her meeting and marrying her husband, there were a few of the two of them together, and then her with Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Homer Simpson, King Kong ... etc. It was really funny to think of things; she is a VERY refined and elegant lady, and we had her getting a tattoo, pole dancing, in a motorcycle gang, on a Tabloid cover, in the Sopranos -- like that. What made it funny was that we kept the narration perfectly straight and played very formal music behind it. It was very well received, and the guest of honor loved it. Do you think your mom might like something like one of these ideas? I, too, think I would prefer something like that to making the guests play games. I think it is so nice of you to make a party for your mother. You don't need to "program" every minute with games, though -- your mom's friends will enjoy socializing with each other.

I gave both of my kids a grad party when they graduated from HS. Both were essentially the same. Sunday afternoon around 2 pm. Lots (LOTS) of munchies - chips, dips, veggies, cookies, brownies, cheese, that sort of thing. No activities were planned. I invited my close friends, and they invited their friends. I served wine for the adults, cokes for the kids. Everyone sat around munching & schmoozing and a good time was had by all. Simple. For gifts, I recommend things that have to do with the college they will be going to (for those who are going). T-shirt, sweat shirt, rug for dorm room, blanket, etc, with college logo. If they are going away to another city, books with information on that city. Mostly my kids got checks for gifts, but a few people gave them what I just named above and they liked those gifts a lot.

The saran ball is so much fun and a great "ice breaker" to get folk to interact. Can be hilarious and is definitely fun for both the actual unwrapping and the observation of those waiting their turn. Even children enjoy the anticipation of "winning" something, even if as small as a stick of gum.

Well Arcy my best friend's niece (yes just one person) infected her entire family, including her aunt and 80 year old grandmother, when they moved an outdoor party indoors BRIEFLY due to cold. The niece infected almost everyone, including her grandmother, and the grandmother infected her daughter who did not go inside, but drove her home. All asymptomatic at the time of transmission. So I would respectfully disagree, now is not the time to let go of responsibility about Covid concerns, particularly if you are mixing people who are unvaccinated and don't care about transmission and never have and don't follow science, with those who do, or if you have no way of knowing who is vaccinated and who is not. For a social gathering, asking or requiring folks to indicate their vaccination status brings up a lot of issues so I would try to avoid. Given that, and given that I was hosting, I would err on the side of caution. As a general principle, I rarely regret erring on the side of caution, but have been in plenty of situations where I didn't have a solid backup plan and deeply regretted it. Back to the subject at hand, which is a rain backup to an outdoor gathering. That I do have extensive experience with, having been an outdoor education professional for 30+ years, and also three years ago I was planning my outdoor wedding and had to have rain backups, and actually used them. In addition to having attended some events utilizing the above described tents. It was chilly and rainy for my first outdoor wedding reception, which was uncharacteristic for Aug. in MI but not unheard of. Our reception took place in a pavilion that we rented at a county park. We were worried about having enough space so we rented a tent to put adjacent to the pavilion. The chilly weather did put a damper on things. A significant portion of our guests excused themselves early, even though they weren't getting wet under the pavilion. The park had a swimming beach, which was supposed to be part of the party, but in the end, only the most intrepid ventured down to the beach. Also since it was unseasonably chilly for August, no one had really expected it to be that cold and didn't dress accordingly. My second experience was a friend who had to move her outdoor wedding inside for the reception when it rained in Oct. Again it was a temperature thing, not a rain exposure thing . . . which is the same issue that got to my friend's family during their outdoor gathering to welcome a new baby. I wouldn't use my home as plan B. I would try to figure out if I could find gas fired heaters to space around inside the tent. I have been in tents using them and they provide quite a lot of warmth. That's best of both worlds, ventilation and heat. Recently I had to do and extended work project outside in the cold and damp, and we set up our portable fire pit nearby and it gave off a lot of heat to the surrounding area and no one got chilled, even though it was a damp, windy, chilly day. When Wegman's groceries remodeled about a decade ago, they put in new outdoor dining spaces under a roof, with a large gas fireplace providing ambiance and heat. Worked very well to extend the season. A second option would be to try and find a large, well ventilated community room nearby. We have quite a few of those. Or a restaurant that would rent you a space. Your home sounds too tight. I hosted what I thought would be an outdoor screened-in porch luncheon last year for an old family friend visiting, not one was vaccinated, and it was in summer and again got unseasonably cold and the guests were old so I had to balance exposure to cold vs covid. I ended up setting up two smaller tables widely spaced in my dining room for the two families. The space was open to the porch area, so the wide screened in doorway provided the ventilation. And that was a stretch, even with four people! In July, in your house, with a lot of people gathered, its likely that if you move it indoors, the air conditioning is going to be on with that many people in the rooms. Even without a pandemic, I would prefer a larger space designed to accommodate that many guests, not turn my house into a banquet hall. I have done similar things for small gatherings, rented small gathering spaces. Such facilities exist. Maybe if you're using a caterer, they could advise you of one. Also ask the tent rental company, they may also rent the gas heaters and they can advise you on how well they work. Edited to add that you need to be sure that the tent is properly suited for plan B, to avoid having something like what happened to Joanie's friends. That sounds like poor execution from the set-up team for the tent . . .