HERE'S TO SURPRISES...

My Mom will turn 50 in January 2009. She mentioned to me that she wanted a surprise party for her birthday and to let Randy, my step-dad, know. She also added, "It cannot be 50 days before, 50 days after, the day of, or day before my birthday...I will know to expect it then." So, my sister and I got together and decided that we could do it Mother's Day weekend before her birthday. We would be getting together with her sometime that weekend anyway.
The planning began October 2007. We were good to go until about two weeks before. More people RSVP'd than we were expecting. I scrambled to gather enough tables and chairs...Thanks to all my Sacred Marriage classmates that helped me out in that area. Then getting my yard ready, since the party was to be held in my back yard, was more work than planned. It took all two weeks just to get the back yard ready. On top of that, Mom began questioning what she was really coming to my home to celebrate. Ugh! My sister and I were really frustrated. We thought we had her fooled. However, the day she showed up to the house you could tell she knew something was going on...one of my neices told her about the whole thing the day before the big event. Oh well! Mom was very pleased with the party, the guests surprised her, and she loved all the other little surprises (a memory book, DVD of pictures through the years, and a hotel in Dallas).
I cannot say we would do this again, but I did love seeing her so happy.



Mom now and at 18 months in front of her cake.