Happy 50th!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, a few weeks ago, my sisters and I threw a surprise party for my mom for her 50th birthday. It was so much fun to plan - except for the tiny little glitch of getting her out of the house. We filled my step-dad in on the festivities and told him he had to take her out for supper so that we could set everything up and people could arrive while they were out. The only problem is that she normally drives school bus in the afternoons, so we theoretically would have had a good hour and a half while she was out doing that to start getting things ready. Turns out, the day of the party was an inservice, so no bus driving. She was going to come home in between cleaning and going to town to meet my step-dad...but we didn't know when. She ended up deciding to go straight from cleaning to supper, so things were a bit rushed when we finally all arrived at their house. But, we managed to get balloons blown up and hung, streamers put up, and most of the food we had planned made and set out by the time they were on their way home. My younger sister had made a monstrous cake depicting Mom laying on a beach in Mexico (the travel bug has bitten her in recent years and she's gone on a hot vacation for the last three winters). 

People started arriving, we put out the finishing touches....and then we had to wait for the birthday girl to arrive. We figured she'd realize something was up when she saw all the cars in the yard - but driving up to the house, she just assumed that my older sister was having a party. It wasn't until she was IN the yard and recognized some of the vehicles that she figured out it might be for her. She was super shocked to see so many of her friends and family there - and to see my younger sister and I (we both live a few hours away). It was great to see the look of surprise on her face, and we had a wonderful evening sharing with her the 50 Reasons She's the Best Mom Ever. Reliving her childhood and ours with a slide show of pictures, and playing a few games and opening gifts. 

She's the best Mom in the entire world and we were so thrilled to be able to celebrate with her!

And I have now realized how much I enjoy planning events like these....maybe in another life (or when my kids are older) I'll consider it as a profession - it's a ton of fun!