Surprise!

This is my life: Roaring 20's

My husband turned 30!!  30!  It's crazy.  I remember when I was younger never thinking I'd be 30, and here I am around the corner.  But 30 is a big deal :)  To me, it's true adulthood.  Most settle down in their thirties, get married, start their family.   For us, our family will be complete and our thirties will hopefully bless us with our forever family home, our babies will turn into teenagers in our thirties. yikes!  We just have a lot of amazing stuff to look forward too in our thirties together.  For now though, I wanted to celebrate my man. 

I hopped on pinterest (of course) and fell in love with the idea of celebrating by saying good bye to his roaring 20's and welcoming his 30's.  So fun, and who doesn't want to dress up when they get a chance?  

So, thanks to my dear friend Beth who so selflessly offered to help me, we started planning together and getting all the details nailed down.  This is probably one of the most stressful things I have ever done.  Planning a surprise party for the man you spend your life with is NOT easy.  I started a board on pinterest with the ideas I wanted to include, but until August, yes the month of the party, I had nothing.  The only thing I had made and ordered were his invites, and I had to place these on our debit card and he saw the purchase....here is where the lies began. 

Now my husband is our money man for our family.  I know very little about our account except when we discuss purchases and paying off our debts.  Other than that, the daily account stuff I am unaware of.  But, I know he checks it every day and all transactions.   He saw the first purchase and asked me about the charge.  

LIE #1:  Beth asked me to order invitations for a surprise party she is planning for James.  (now we had to roll with this)

Due to this, I knew I had to go about buying stuff for the party another way.  So, I have always loved the online yard sales.  I started to list all the stuff I do not wear or use and selling it all to "raise" money for his surprise party.  I then had to buy a rechargeable gift card and put the cash on there so I could start making purchases online and sent them to Beth's house.  See all this little effort to keep it a SURPRISE.  phew!

My most exciting purchase was my punch fountain.  :)  I loved it! 

Two of my close friends are awesome party planners and instructed me on how to order labels on etsy and print them to Fedex office.  This was all new to me, but with their guidance I did it.  I ordered water bottle labels and labels for all the food, Gatsby style ! 

 LIE #2: My friend called me to give me some direction on printing and I had to step outside because I was sitting right next to Anthony.  When I came back in, he asked me what was going on, I told him she just wanted to chat for a second because she was stressed about her husbands surgery coming up.  

LIE #3:  To get my husband to dress up, I told him Beth was throwing her husband a surprise promotion party and it was Friday night. (this part cracks me up)

LIE #4: So he knew I was actually planning something for his birthday, I told him we were going out to dinner Saturday night with a bunch of our friends and family party Monday night.  He wanted to go to Masa, so I pretended to plan a dinner at Masa.  Now my husband so kindly kept inviting other people that I then had to get in contact with and tell them this dinner didn't really exist.  lol. ahhhhh

The Divine intervention: I was getting so stressed out not being able to organize or plan anything with him being home every night, I had a bunch of stuff on the bottom of my closet praying he wouldn't see it.  FINALLY, he told me he had a training for work he had to go to in Ohio Wed-Fri the week of his party. THANK YOU JESUS!!!!  I was so stressed.  Still stressful being left alone with our three boys and planning a party, but WAY easier.  

LIE #5:  His sister would be picking him up from the airport Friday because I needed to go set up early to help Beth.  

LIE #6:  James (this is Beth's husband) would be picking him up, thinking they were going to a surprise party for Meg (their Sister in Law).   PS: I do not know how pathological liars keep it all straight, I was getting so nervous because I do not lie and keeping it all straight was getting hard. 

Thursday night I went to the library with the boys to get a feel for how I wanted to set up the room.  I'm a very visual person and I felt like I couldn't buy decorations and room stuff without knowing where I wanted everything.  

LIE #7: My husband wanted to Skype when I was just pulling into the library.  I told him we were doing a quick visit to the library to pick up a movie and just get out of the house for a few minutes...this was a minor one :) But, I had to rush him off the chat! 

I could not sleep the whole week of the party!  My mind could not shut off with all little details and things I didn't want to forget.

Now I'm finally at the library Friday.  Was a great location for his party.  5 minutes up the road.  Down side: No alcohol.  Not a problem for me and about 50% of those attending are pregnant lol.  But with the 20's being during the prohibition, would have been fun to have a speakeasy party, but our friends did just fine ;) wink wink! 

Set up went great, only hiccup I really hit was I forgot to pick up the shrimp, but my Mom so gladly picked them up for me. 

 Beth also came early (seriously, could not have done this without her) and so did her sister in law Meg, which was such a blessing because she has a great eye for party set up as well.  Little ideas that we would have never thought of were just wonderful touches for the whole decor.  

Some of the stuff on the menu:  Olives and Nuts, Pretzel Cigarettes, Deviled Eggs, Shrimp cocktail, swedish meatballs, sausage bread, caprese skewers, spinach dip, Wings and provided sauces for all the make it their own way, and pig in a blanket.

 LIE #8:  It's 6:30 , party starts at 7, Anthony was" instructed" to be picked up and brought to the library for 7:20-7:30.  He texts me at 6:30 saying James was already there.  I panicked.  I told my husband to makes sure he stalled and not to leave our house any earlier than 7:20 and Beth was freaking out.  lol ahhh...when in reality, it was me! 

Dessert had the beautiful cupcakes, fondue fountain with lots of fruit and pretzels to dip with a coffee bar. 

My friend Erin made the gorgeous cupcakes. Joel was my awesome DJ, this was something that stressed me so much because I'm not techy and good with music stuff....he was awesome!!  Friends/family made some food.  My friend Jenny was the photographer (link in her name) I LOVE pictures, but I knew I could not capture everything I wanted to capture, and she was awesome! All were awesome and as I looked around the room, we are just beyond blessed with such wonderful people in our lives!

He finally ARRIVED!   He made it to the parking lot for the surprise.  I did not think of my families cars giving it away, but that's pretty good ;) 

He arrives :) and picked up a flower for me because he was trying to "stall"

I feel relieved now.  I could finally relax, he was in and being celebrated!!!! 

It was a great night of food, poker, friends, family and dancing!!!   

Our group was so festive, that was my favorite part! All went into character and were awesome!  Made me so happy. 



Anthony was surprised and had a wonderful evening! Perfect <3 Now I can finally sleep....zzzz

Thank you to all who made this party possible, couldn't have done it without you and who also stayed to help clean up after!