The B Family: 50th Surprise Party!!!!

I'm behind on blogging, but can't let this big event go unnoticed. 2 weeks ago I threw a surprise birthday party for my mom and step dad, who are both turning 50 this year. All year my mom talked about making her 50th a huge deal. She wanted to throw a big party. Well 10 days before her birthday there were no plans to celebrate the big day, so I decided to pull together a party. I had 10 days to; get invitations out, decide on a theme, buy and make all the decorations, plan a menu, keep up on RSVP's, make 2 fondant tiered cakes, schedule the church, set up the church, decorate the church, cook all the food(with no power. That's right, a huge lightening storm knocked out all the power just hours before the party. I had to transport all the food to my brothers house and cook there),make a song list, organize what people should bring, decide how to trick my mom into coming to her own surprise party, and actually surprise them. Luckily everything worked out great except one pot of soup which was slightly scorched, but with enough toppings, I don't think anyone noticed.

My nosy mother didn't go down without a fight. Oh, she's a tricky one. Luckily I had my step dad in on the surprise so that he could help control her. I had to hide all the decorations and cakes in my bedroom because she kept stopping by my house. I even locked the front door on the day of the party so she wouldn't see all of the food. Brian(step dad) told her he was taking her out to dinner for her birthday and she just kept asking all of us about it. "Where is he taking me? Why hasn't he invited any of my kids? What is he up to?" It's a good thing that door was locked because sure enough she showed up and started ringing the door bell. I answered the door and slithered out onto the front porch before she could see inside. She was suspicious as to why she couldn't come into the house, but I just told her I was working on a birthday present for her and she would have to wait until Sunday family dinner to get it. (later she told me she thought I was making a quilt for her) I sidetracked her by suggesting we take some 50th Birthday pictures in my backyard. This is my favorite.

The party went off great.We had over 50 people show up.

I wanted to do a Golf theme for Brian and a pretty theme for my mom, so it ended up being a flowery golf party. I was most proud of the tiered fondant cakes I made. I've never make fancy cakes before but luckily my good friend Connie had lots of advice and was nice enough to come over a 11pm to help me roll out the fondant. I spent a whole day baking the cakes, then a few hours with the fondant and frosting and then another day decorating them. Yeah, it's a lot of work and quite expensive. Now I know why they charge so much for fancy cakes. Even though they sat for 3 days, they were delicious and so moist. WOW!

So I finally got my mom to the church for the surprise and we pulled it off! She was crying and everyone was singing happy birthday. She's not going to like the ugly crying face picture, but oh well, it's proof that I pulled a surprise over on my mother.

Special thanks to my brothers Bracken, Chase and his wife Megan for helping with cooking and setup and watching my three children most of the afternoon. Thanks to my aunts, Vickie and Carrie, who got off work early to help decorate. Thanks to Stephen and Aiden for the music, and thanks to David and Chase for starting the HUGE ping pong Golf ball war. (yes, all the table decorations turned into a rousing game of hit each other with golf balls. There were literally 40 balls in the air at any given moment! Take cover!)