Happy Monday, friends! I hope you had a good weekend! I'm linking up with
Holly and
Sarah for today's post.
This was a great and whirlwind of a weekend! I'll back up to Thursday. This was my excited face to be where I was, at the airport picking up my family who flew in from Denver. Mom turns eighty at the end of this month, so what better way to celebrate than to throw her a surprise party with the entire family? The entire family flew in as a surprise on Thursday, we shopped and set up on Friday, had lunch and dinner together, and the party was Saturday.
Thursday night was just Lisa and me at dinner, so Mexican and margaritas it was!
We're sisters! We dropped off the second load at church, and then we were about to go shop at Costco and a couple of other stores. (Left to right starting from the back row: Debi, Trish, Lisa, and me.)
After shopping that morning, we dropped off the third load at my church where we were hosting the party, then it was time for lunch on the town square. We ate at Dyer's, which is a burger place here in town that's famous locally. This is my nephew Jaret and me at lunch.
Next up was setting up and decorating The Fireside Room at my church. My niece Erika made an incredible balloon arch! I got hot and put my hair up right away; I really should do this more often since it's so much cooler when it's off my neck.
I loved this picture table that Debi decorated! We put all kinds of pictures of Mom out in every stage of her life. I wish I'd gotten pictures of some of them.
We finally finished decorating by six, so Trish, Lisa, and I left to go meet up with everyone for dinner. We met at Firebirds and had the best time catching up. I came home afterward, and Trish spent the night with me since we would have to be back at the church early that morning. My brother Trey and his son ended up coming over on Friday night, because Jax (my nephew) wanted to scare me. I'm so glad he didn't!
We succeeded in surprising Mom! Here are some more pictures from her party.
My nephew Tyler played basketball with my boys in the gym right off the room we were using. That ended up being a great way for them to entertain themselves!
My sister Debi has a sister in law named Debbie, and this is her! She and her husband and her mom live near Nashville and came for Mom's party.
I love these pictures of my guys with Mom! We missed Noah, but because of a new job and an upcoming move, he needed to stay in Dallas to work and save money. I certainly understand the need for that kind of thing! I'll see him in September, so I'm excited about that.
Didn't Mom look beautiful? Of course Trey had to jump in behind us. 🤣
Sisters are the very best! Left to right are Trish, Debi, Mom, Lisa, and me.
My beautiful, smiley, intelligent, and kind little greats: Kinsley, Kyle, Madison (Madi), and Macy.
The cakes were bought at a bakery, but my sister Lisa is a master cake decorator! She outdid herself on this two tiered one. The cakes both came plain; Lisa added the rest.
I love these pictures on the cake table; they were of Mom both as a little girl herself, then with each of us on our wedding days. Either Lisa or Debi came up with this idea, and I thought it was brilliant! We also had a color scheme of pastels: pink, peach, a tiny bit of light turquoise, and gold accessories.
After the party, we all took the room apart for the cleaning crew that would come in behind us, then I came home to rest for a bit. I went to Mom's and Bill's that afternoon for dinner, and this was the view on my drive home. Isn't God a creative God? He paints the sky with the most radiant of colors!
Before I forget, I published a bonus blog post on Saturday; it was the third installment of my series, The Cozy Chronicles.
Here's the link for that post. Speaking of that, my friend
Debbie mentioned maybe turning that series into a link party. Would anyone else be interested in that? It would take place on the second Saturday of every month; the dates would be September 14th, October 12th, November 9th, and December 14th.
The September post will be called The Cozy Chronicles: Transitioning from the Summer Season to Fall. You can just use my graphic at the top of this post for your post, or you can make one of your own. Let me know your thoughts, but I'm going to just plan on turning it into a link party, and whoever wants to join can just jump on in with me!
What did you do that you loved this weekend? I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading my blog, friends. Love to all!
Jenn 🖤
What a great surprise party for your mom! So many fun details and how wonderful to have family come in for the special weekend. It looks like everything came together so well. How special and loved your mom must have felt!
ReplyDeleteIt was such a fun weekend, and we were shocked that we were able to pull it off without her knowing! Mom is not easy to hide things from, because she's sharp as a tack. Family from Colorado all flew in together as well, so that helped make it really special for her. We were also missing another niece of mine and a nephew; they both had started new jobs like Noah and couldn't make it, but even in spite of the three missing grandkids, it was still a great party. I know Mom loved every minute!
DeleteI love when people celebrate people - big and small milestones alike! You pulled it off! I love the idea of the new link up!
ReplyDeleteI love it too! When I was growing up, birthdays were a big deal, so I still treat them that way today. My mom is the one who taught me this, so it's appropriate that we celebrate her in the way she taught us. I'm shocked we pulled it off so well! Oh, I'm glad you like that idea. I'm going to just start it in September! I'll give the prompts for October at the end of that post. I hope you have a great day, my friend!
DeleteOh my gosh I bet your mom loved her big surprise celebration- the cake came out beautifully and I love the 80 lights and all of the pics- you thought of everything! So glad you were also surrounded by your amazing family XO
ReplyDeleteWasn't the cake beautiful? I was involved in the early planning stages, with securing the room for us to use, borrowing things from my church, and the guest list, but everything else was basically my other sisters. We are a great team, though, and work well together. It was such an amazing weekend!
DeleteI love that you were able to surprise your Mom! It looks like it was a grand affair! Hey - they sunset got the color scheme memo too! Have a great Monday!
ReplyDeleteThank you! It was such a fun weekend.
DeleteLooks like an awesome party! I do think the cozy thing could be a blog linky thing.
ReplyDeleteIt was! That's great to know; I hope you'll join me when I start it next month!
DeleteFirst of all I love your soft pink dress! So cute! What a wonderful party and I love how it was a team effort to make it all come together. Looks like such a special day. Happy birthday to your momma!
ReplyDeleteThank you! Amazon for the win, once again. It was such a great party, and we made a great team.
DeleteAww! What a lovely surprise for your mom and how lovely to spend time with your family! Happy birthday to your mom. What lovely photos. It looks like everyone had a great time.
ReplyDeleteThank you! It was so special.
DeleteWhat a wonderful party for your mom...and a perfect weekend for being with family. I enjoyed all your pictures.
ReplyDeleteIt was so sweet! Thank you, my friend.
DeleteThat looks like such a fabulous surprise party! I loved that the whole family pitched in to decorate and plan and get everything ready. That cake table is lovely!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I loved that too; we make such a great team and worked well together.
DeleteWhat a wonderful surprise party! It is really a rare occasion that can bring the extended family together like that. All of the decorations were incredible, and I especially liked the cake and the idea for the wedding photos on the table. Hope you have a good week.
ReplyDeleteRight? Her birthday isn't until the 28th, but the 10th was the only weekend we could all make it work. We were still missing three of her grandkids: my Noah, my nephew Austin, and niece Nicole. She understood though, because they all have new jobs that make it hard to take off work. My Noah needed to save some money, since he was here a lot in July when Dad died. Thank you! I hope the same for you, my friend.
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