A surprise party that wasn't a surprise...

Good evening friends.  I must once again apologize for my lack of posts.  We have done a good job of staying busy this summer.  

We have enjoyed play dates with friends and countless shopping trips.  We have enjoyed spending lots of time with Nana and even had a few quick roadtrips.

I have to say we have had a great summer so far and since Darbee doesn't head back to school until September, we plan on spending what's  left of it having lots more fun.

One of the things I enjoy the most is getting people together and having a party.  I love finding cute ideas and decorating.  Any excuse for a party is a good excuse.  

Last Sunday night, Kathy called me over to her house and said we needed to talk.  She wanted to plan a party.  I was excited even before I knew who it was for.

Mama and daddy's anniversary was coming up and it was their 40th.  She wanted us to go in together and give them an anniversary party and she wanted it to be a surprise.  I was tickled.  I couldn't wait.  We started planning right away.  Keep in mind this was Sunday evening and their anniversary was the coming Saturday. We had to hurry and get busy quick.

First was finding a place.  We crossed our fingers and hoped for the best and asked hubby to see about renting the company cabin for us.  We knew deep down it was probably booked but hoped it would work out some how.

Monday afternoon, hubby called and let me know he had miraculously got the cabin for Friday night and part of the day Saturday.  I was ecstatic!

Once we knew we had the location, we came up with the story of how we would get them there and how we would try and keep it a secret all week.  We came up with every possible excuse she could give and came up with game plans for everything we could thing of.  We thought so anyway.

On Tuesday, Darbee Rae and I spent the day at Nana's.  I was so nervous Darbee would let it slip, but she didn't.  She did so good.  I managed to get Mama's wedding album out of her house by giving her the excuse that I was going to do a blog post about her anniversary.  I wanted to use the pictures for my blog post.  Ha! It sounded good and she believed me.  

I also loaded up my car with some  a lot of her decor by giving her the excuse I wanted to use it for a get together at our house on Saturday for our town's fireworks. I was on a roll.  She was believing all of it and we were doing good.

I figured out how to create a secret board on Pinterest to pin ideas for the party and Mama couldn't see any of it. Hehe. On Wednesday night, we were sitting there finishing up the favors when the phone rang. On the other end was my very excited mama.  Oh no.  She was so happy.  They were planning a quick getaway vacation for their anniversary.  My heart sank. I was so upset.  We had gone all week and kept the surprise.  Now what were we to do? Kathy and I had to tell her. We had to keep them here! We had already invited nearly 30 people and already bought some of the decor and stuff we needed.

Thursday morning, I came up with the excuse to get her to Kathy's.  I told her Darbee had left her baby doll over there.  She was with us and had a day of shopping planned.  When we got to Kathy's guess what?  She refused to get out of the car!!!  She couldn't understand why we couldn't just run in and get the baby and be on our way.  Kathy had to finally come out to the car and we had to tell her.  We had to crash her vacation.  She was speechless.  There were tears of gratitude and a look of shock.  She had no idea.  She was so happy. There...it was done.  No more secrets.  She and I and Darbee Rae headed out for our day of shopping and I didn't have to hide the decorations I needed to get to finish up. :)

Finally, Friday was here.  The party day.  We headed over to the cabin around lunch time and got busy.  We couldn't wait for the party but we were also excited that our whole family was spending the night at the cabin together.  There was going to be 9 of us all staying together.  What fun.  

I won't bore you with much more writing.  I will share the party with you in pictures.  IT was a big success.  We had so much fun.  The weather was perfect.  There were friends and family there.  The food turned out great.  I was so thankful.

It was a country party.  The tables were covered in brown paper.  There were bandannas in the middle with a center piece and a wedding picture.  On each end of the tables were mason jars with burlap and red ribbon.  They had rocks in the bottom and floating candles. I love how everything turned out.

 

I used my old chicken and filled it with tall branches.  I used clothes pins and pinned small wedding pictures and pictures from early in their marriage on it.  It was a big hit.  It was on the cake table.

The cake table was my favorite.

I found the idea for the favors on Pinterest.  How did we ever live without that site?  I love the cute sayings.  The tags said, "We are still suckers for each other 40 years later."

I also made labels for cookie bags and made cookie favors.

Their stickers said either "Thank You" or "40th Anniversary."

Above the food tables we hung a banner we made that said, "We still do."

I loved that.

The food was simple but oh so yummy.

The menu was hot dogs, chips, 

velveeta sausage dip and tortilla chips

meatballs

potato salad

vegetable tray

baked beans

pickle roll ups

and a fruit bowl.

It was delicious!

The drinks were in my washtub that I found by the road.  Good find huh?  I think so.

I was so proud everyone came.  There were friends of theirs who were a part of their wedding 40 years ago.  It was so neat.

They even cut the cake just as they did at their wedding.  

It was sweet.

As they went up for us to take a picture some silly little girl named Darbee Rae decided to jump in the picture and show her best side. smile...

Their friends were so generous to bring gifts.  They were so grateful.

It was such a good party.

I am so happy to have such a good example before me.

After the party was over and everything was cleaned up, we headed in the cabin for a fun night of together time.  We stayed up waaayyyy to late.  We talked about times past. We planned for the future.  We just enjoyed being together.

There were pallets everywhere but it was so much fun.

Happy Anniversary you two!

Until next time....