It’s hard to believe, but this is the 10th year celebrating my friend Amber’s birthday. It all started back in 2014 with an impromptu wacky-ass microwave party at her house and now it’s become a yearly MBIP tradition!

And this year marks a decade of MBIP Amber Birthday Parties and so let’s get this party started!

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The Trefzger’s Cake

You can’t have a birthday party without cake and the only place to get the best birthday cake in Peoria and beyond is at Trefzger’s Bakery!

I went in and ran into Jeff, who owns Trefzger’s along with his wife, Martha. Always great to see and chat with him!

And there’s this year’s birthday cake, presented by Marci! It looks fantastic and we’ll get a closer look at it as this party post unfolds before your very eyeballs!

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The Birthday Poster

Chelsie Tamms from Lettering Works always designs the poster for the party and then we take it to Technicraft who prints and frames the celebratory birthday poster.

There’s Stacey presenting this year’s birthday poster at Technicraft! Chelsie did a fabulous job this year designing the poster that celebrates ten years of Amber’s birthday parties!

There’s Amber and Joe holding the finished and framed poster at our pre-party at MBIP World Headquarters and there’s the poster below them.

Thanks to Chelsie and Technicraft for doing such wonderful work!

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The Gifts

Amber opened up her gifts and we were having so much fun I forgot to take photos.

So I found this video of another Amber opening up birthday gifts, enjoy!

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Annie’s Lanes (In St. Ann’s Church)

Annie’s Lanes in the basement of St. Ann’s Parish Church closed back when Covid reared its ugly head in 2020. I was sad because we had some fun MBIP parties here and Amber and Joe had their wedding reception here.

Well, they just re-opened it and this is the first celebration taking place in this Peoria hidden gem of a party place! Let’s go in and take a look around!

Wow, it looks fabulous in here! Nothing’s changed and there’s the bowling alley and lanes!

They have a nice bar in here with a TV overhead and a cool vintage cash register.

Brad was the manager/bartender for the evening and here he is serving up the first beer of the evening with a friendly smile!

Cheers!

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Party Favors

Here’s the party favors for the evening,

Chelsie had stickers and magnets made up with her birthday design and we also got some colorful Happy Birthday wristbands and Happy Birthday Amber shot glasses and coasters!

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The Food

We got a tray of deli sandwiches from the Hy-Vee Deli in Sheridan Village and had bowls of potato chips, popcorn and various crunchy snack items for dinner and snacking through this festive evening!

And there’s the Trefzger’s birthday cake with Chelsie’s decade birthday design and a bowling ball and pins in honor of the re-opening of Annie’s Lanes in downtown Peoria!

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The Party Guests

A fun group of people showed up for the party and some of them were gracious enough to pose for the MBIP Camera.

From the top: 1. There’s Amber and Joe with Joe’s parents, Sue and Roger, 2. Kathy and Amber, 3. Kathy and Steve, 4. Loni and Steven, 5. Amber and Tammy, 6. Luke, 7. Rebekah, Joe and Andrew and 8. Jake and Michelle.

Thanks to everyone for coming to celebrate a decade of Amber’s birthdays!

And so the party begins! The nice thing about Annie’s Lanes is there’s plenty of space to mingle and chat at the beginning of the party.

But before you know it, it’s time to hit the bowling lanes!

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Bowling, Part I

Amber kicked off the bowling for the evening by tossing the first bowling ball down lane number one!

Soon everyone was up and hurling bowling balls at pins.

Annie’a Lanes supplies the bowling balls and shoes and this is such a fun spot for a party. We were all so happy that it’s open for rental again!

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Blowing Out The Candles On The Birthday Cake

After about an hour of bowling it was time to light the candles on the birthday cake and sing Happy Birthday to Amber and let her blow out the candles!

And then…back to the bowling lanes!

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Bowling Part II

What a wonderful evening and birthday party!

Thanks to Brad and Father Jeremy for helping us put this fun birthday party together!

Annie’s Lanes is the perfect spot for birthday parties, wedding receptions, office parties, family reunions and any other festive event you can think of. Click on this link for rental and contact information.

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