Suprise!

Last Saturday, we had a surprise birthday party for Jason's mom.

Background: Mom had been wanting to go to a well-known quilt/fabric shop in Burley, ID. Cathy and Melissa (Jason's sisters) offered to take her on a birthday road trip, from Ogden, UT to the Burley, ID area, for a "Shop Hop".

The set up: Friday, her birthday was celebrated as usual; lunch with friends, dinner with family, presents opened, birthday calls received. We hoped she had no suspicion as to what we were up to.

Saturday, while mom and the girls were shopping, the rest of us gathered in Jerome. We decorated the church and prepared for the surprise. As the "Shop Hop" came to a close, the last address of the day, was typed into the GPS. (Melissa's GPS had been on the fritz, leading them in the wrong direction and to strange locations, all day.) As they approached a corn field, with an LDS church on the right, mom believed the GPS was leading them astray, once again. Then they continued on into the parking lot of the church...

"SURPRISE!!!"

We jumped out, from behind a parked van, and ran to greet her.

We SPOTlighted her all evening.

We had decorated with cute bright colors and pok-a-dots.

We showcased her life with tables of her memories.

Dad made a video, put to music, of her 60 years of life. It included; baby pictures, wedding photos, young mommy moments and grandma shots with grand babies.

On the tables, we had decorated with items associated with events and stories of her life. At one point, in the evening, we asked her to tell us some of those stories. As she held her wedding dress up to her, she made some sort of comment about how it USED to fit. Bob piped up, "Grandma, did you wear that BEFORE you liked chocolate?!"

The stories held the grand kids attention and they ooo-ed and ahhh-ed and laughed at the funny things grandma did as a little girl. (She seemed to have several potty/bathroom stories???)

She told us that she had a little suspicion, but was generally very surprised. It was a nice evening and successful birthday celebration.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

PS- Great job Julia!