This is a big year for my parents. They all celebrated their 50th birthdays this year. Back in March, my mom and I threw my dad a surprise party that was a huge success. My dad and I knew we had our work cut out for us when planning my mom's surprise party. She is clever and would smell this coming a mile away. We knew right away that we needed to have it either before or after her birthday. How to disguise it though, without tipping her off. That was the tough part.
My dad enlisted the help of family friends Bob and Cindy Kurziak. He had Cindy call my mom and tell her that she was having a Halloween party and needed help decorating. It was 2 weeks after my mom's b-day, so it seemed like a good cover. In the coming weeks, I realized that the plan was genius. My mom had no idea and was excited to attend the costume party.
A week before the actual party we threw my mom a dinner with 11 of our family members. This was the 'fake' and it worked perfectly. We were all set for the coming Saturday - the room was secured, the food order was in, guests were confirmed. It was going to be perfect.
As the week went on, several surprises developed due to circumstances. There were 3 surprises that my mom would be faced with on Saturday.
Surprise 1: The party, of course!
Surprise 2: My brother Mike was being flown in from Tulsa
Surprise 3: My sister-in-law and niece were coming to town and neither my mom, myself or the rest of the family had seen Kassidy yet.
I finally settled on a costume - Smurfette! Thanks to my friend Dana, I had the greatest Smurf hat EVER! Only my brother and aunt knew about my costume, so it was going to be fun for all. We did ask that everyone attending show up in costume since Ellen would be dressed up. I wasn't sure how seriously everyone would take that, but as you'll see from the photos it was a smashing success. I feel so lucky to have such a fun, crazy and loving family.
I arrived at the hall on Saturday and began to get all the decorations set and the room together. Aunt Janet and Mike showed up shortly after that to help. Then the guests began arriving. I still had to get into costume and be ready for when my mom would arrive.
Since pictures speak a thousand words, I thought I would add a bunch of photos to the post and let you see for yourselves what a great party it was. My mom was completely surprised and everything went off without a hitch. The food was great, the music was fun, the costumes were GREAT and meeting Kassidy was the icing on the cake. It couldn't have been more perfect.
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