Surprise Weekend

The surprise 50/60th birthday party that my siblings and I planned for my dad and stepmom was this past weekend! It was great! I don't know how it was possible that everything went according to plan, but somehow it did!

Friday began with my mom and I going to the store to get all the food that we were going to need. We made everything ourselves except for the cake, so we needed a ton of groceries.

The Menu

For the main dish/meat we did beef sandwiches with pepperoncinis that my mom has made before and that is really good! We had a broccoli and cauliflower salad, an Asian Ramen salad, Veggie Pizza, fruit salad, a cheese tray with french bread, BLT dip, buffalo chicken dip, another salad that my mom makes that's like a pasta salad, and more. There was just SO MUCH delicious food! My mom and I made everything Friday night. I was taking pictures as we went so some of the things shown above weren't done yet.

The Big Day

Saturday we went over to my dad's around 1:30, and we all went out to this restaurant on the lake that has a Tiki bar in the back. It was a pretty big crowd. My dad, stepmom, my siblings and their dates, and my husband and I. Our first surprise came at the restaurant ... we invited my stepmom's dad and aunt and uncle down from up north to spend the day with us. She was so shocked and we had a really great time there!

Carol's surprise!

Me and my Daddy! 

Me and my sister and Tamara.

The birthday boy/girl!

My aunt, uncle, and cousins were flying into Chicago on 3 different flights and did not arrive too much before the party was scheduled to begin so we were constantly texting them for updates on how far away they were. Finally, around 4:30, we drove back to the house. We walked in and my mom and her best friend had set everything up for us (they were LIFESAVERS) and they were both surprised. Then my uncle (my dad's brother) walked out and my dad started crying! My dad RARELY sees his family. His brother lives in Texas and his sister in Pennsylvania, so he hadn't seen him in about 2 years. I didn't get a reaction shot of him on my camera, but my sister did. 

The rest of the night we all just hung out, ate all the yummy food, drank, laughed, and had the best time. I was so relieved the stress was over of keeping the secret and my sister even said "I feel like I'm going to pass out," and I totally agreed. I look quite rough in some of the pictures towards the end of the night. I only had like 2 and a half solo cups of wine, but I didn't eat all day because I was so nervous, so I ended up feeling it a lot more.

Our cake! It was soooo yummy.

Just one of the 3 tables of food!

Some of the decor, we had a 50 balloon like that on another table.

Me, my sister, Tamara, and my cousin Corey.

My mom was amazing to help us!

Me and my stepmom Carol.

Me and Corey.

Me, my dad, my uncle, and my cousin Matthew.

There's tons more pictures but most of you are friends with me on Facebook so I'm not going to post them all. I'm so happy after 9 months of planning it all turned out well! No more surprises for awhile though, haha.