Miraculous Surprise Party...

Anyone that knows my mom would agree that trying to pull something over on her is like trying to predict Kentucky weather....  IMPOSSIBLE, especially lately!  Because we are super crazy motivated, we decided to plan a SURPRISE 60th birthday party for her.  We planned to have it at their church with lots of friends from church along with lots of family.  The "trick" to get her there was that a sweet lady from their church (who is in charge of getting volunteers to fill communion cups) was going to call her on the day of the party and ask her and dad to come and fill communion cups because the person who was supposed to be doing it that day was sick (or something along those lines).  We thought it was the best possible idea of an "innocent" way to get her there without suspicion.

The party was scheduled for Saturday, March 9th--her birthday was on the 12th.  Since her actual birthday was on a Tuesday, we had told her ahead of time that it would be easier to celebrate her birthday over the weekend.  So we decided to all go out to dinner on Friday night, March 8th, to celebrate.  In order to keep her suspicions low, we took presents to dinner and even a birthday cake.  After eating at Copper River, we were too full at the moment to cut the cake so we all went back to mom and dad's house for cake (even though Lyndi and I had a ZILLION things we needed to be doing at home in preparation for the party the next day)! 

The day of the party, there was lots to do.  We had planned to have a full meal at the party--fried chicken (from Walmart) and lots of sides that Lyndi and I prepared.  We had corn, green beans, hashbrown casserole, baked beans, and rolls along with a cake adorned with 60 roses!  Oh and we had a crock pot of hot dogs for the kiddos and chips.

Dad was supposed to have her at the church around 4:45-5.  Guests started arriving around 4 which was great since we needed lots of help trying to finish food, get tables decorated, and keep our kids under control.  Thankfully, it was a beautiful day and we had brought the kids' tryicycles with us so that they could play outside while we got ready for the party inside the church.  Thank goodness for Brad and Craig being there to watch the kids outside while we worked inside (Randy was still at work).

Everything was going great....  The guests had arrived--LOTS and LOTS of people.  Even more wonderful was the fact that ALL of my mom's siblings and ALL of my dad's siblings were there along with our grandparents.  Even more amazing is the fact that none of their parents or siblings live close--they are ALL from out of town--my mom's sister came the furthest--all the way from Macon, GA! 

The moment had arrived--we got the "fake" phone call from dad which was his sign to let us know they were close...  They walked into the room to a thundering SURPRISE followed by the singing of Happy Birthday.  Tears fell down mom's face--it was beautiful--the truest sign that we had pulled it off.  Her body almost went limp as she leaned onto my dad.  She was happy to be surrounded by family and friends.  Blessed.  She is blessed.  And we are blessed to have her in our lives. 

The party was FANTASTIC.  We got many compliments on the food.  I didn't get many pictures because I was too busy but we had lots of help cleaning up afterwards and then the kids (and adults) congregated outside soaking up the beautiful sunshine that God had given us that day.  It was an exhausting, stressful, and then perfect day.