Everybody Have Fun Tonight

The secret's out. Finally.  My mother turned 50 yesterday.  My family has been planning a surprise party for her since before Christmas.  We all suck a keeping secrets and at lying.  And when a mother has a sixth sense for these sort of things, it made planning this party nearly impossible.

Sadly, she figured it all out on Friday night when a series of clues culminated when my sweat nephew innocently told Nana that he was at Bizbeth's house for Smachand Cheese.  Whoops.  Kelly confronted Alex and my Dad, and well, they couldn't lie.  Mom admitted her fear of surprise parties and asked that she be present to greet the guests.  Fair enough. We did ask that she hide Saturday during the day so we could keep the details of the party a surprise.

As Mom went out for a mani/pedi and a very long walk, we quickly pulled out all the food, drinks, decorations, balloons, cakes, etc that we'd been accumulating and hiding for the last six weeks.  Then we blind folded her and walked her to her room.  We told her to take her time getting ready.  We brought her some wine and her iPad and there she sat until we could put the finishing touches on the party and get ourselves in costumes.

For those who weren't at the party - we did a "Decades" Theme party to celebrate the last Five Decades.  We asked all the guests to come in a costume that represented the quintessential attire of the era.  Please enjoy the decorations and costuming.

David came dressed as my uncle in the late 80s

Eric came as the 80s construction worker / San Francisco roller blader type

Katie as the trendy late 80s girl: think Ferris Bueller

I came as "bake sale" Kelly from the 90s. Not pictured is my spirit wear pins.

Alex came as a grown up version of himself.  He wore a shirt like that in his grade school pictures

Dad came as a hippie

Paige came as my mom teaching aerobics in the 80s. Yes, pregnant

The Bar. We had a huge beer & soda bucket on the floor...

60s Table

70s table

80s table

90s table

Eric found his "workout buddy", Kyle

my grandmother came as herself pregnant with my mom

My grandfather was wearing a "dad to be" medal and passed out pink cigars

Todd came as an 80s Rocker

Dessert Tray. mmmm.

Tom & Tony (who came as a 20s mobster)

The night was such a blast from the past as we shared stories, laughed a costumes, snickered over the memorabilia tables, and drank the night away.  50 people consumed over two cases of wine (that's a half bottle a person right there), several cases of beer, and a couple handles of liquor.  We did two rounds of food, each filling our dining room table.  Every morsel was gone.  About 1am my parents kicked the last of the guests out of the house. They were drinking wine coolers.  I *think* they were a prop for their 90s fratastic costumes...but I'm not sure :)

All in all - a GREAT night!  It never feels like work when you honor someone you love, especially your momma!  So blessed to have such fun family and friends who love to party too!

Cheers!