Birthday Girl!

What an exciting weekend I have just lived through! As long as 6 months ago my hubby began getting things, including me, ready...In Feb. he insisted we get tanning packages (remember Valentines Day??), he encouraged me to get my highlights done...we mapped out our vacations for the year( I complained they were all biking trips!)but he trudged ahead anyway...he arranged all our lodgings and even when our vacation dates changed from Memorial Day weekend to the weekend before my birthday(his sister was supposedly going to be out of town on the holiday) I wasn't too suspicious...though of course I figured he'd do something for me, he's not the type to forget and after all.... I was turning 50!

Come the weekend we loaded up and traveled to our hometown in Alabama to just chill out, lie in the sun and visit relatives. Sounds exciting, right?? He asked me to bring a nice outfit for Saturday night cause he was taking me out to a new restaurant for my birthday. Okay...so I was a little bummed that he wasn't doing much...but then I figured I'd get a great present instead. :) Friday we basically lazed around, meeting in-laws for a T-ball game and dinner out. (Little did I know that my sisters and friends were eating out just across the highway and hubby was on the phone periodically to amke sure our paths didn't cross! Had we run in to any one of them I would have caught on right away). On Saturday we dropped Jada off at the cousins and then spent the day across the river in a neighboring town just tooling around eating lunch and ice cream and just hanging out. Hubby wanted us to get home and get ready for our dinner out at a rather early time I thought but hey, if we were driving any distance I could understand that. So we headed home to get dressed about 3pm with plans to leave the house around 4:30..on the way his mom called and asked if we could run her out to a local restaurant where she was supposed to meet her Sunday School class for dinner. I was just a tiny bit irritated that now we would have to be on a schedule..her schedule and I did inquire as to who would have taken her out there if we hadn't been in town...since we're never in town....but he pointed out that he never gets to do things for her and it was right on our way...How could I argue??

As we arrived at her destination...a cool little country barbecue type place with a logcabin feel and red checkered table cloths...she mentioned that my hubby's aunt and uncle would be there and we should come in and see them for a minute. I truly never thought a thing about it. It was so completely something she/we would do that I never gave it a thought, of course we would run in and say hi. Upon on entering the restaurant we headed upstairs to the loft which is an area you can reserve for groups with my mother-in-law leading the way and my husband in the rear. When we reached the top of the stairs my mother in law stepped aside and 50+ guests, who had all been squatting so as not to be seen from the first floor, jumped up and shouted surprise! I about fell over! I was completely in shock! At first I wasn't registering what was happening,,,,then I saw my son (who lives in Orlando),then my daughter and her hubby(who live in Jacksonville)...then my cousin whom I haven't seen in at least 10 years! then an old old friend and another and another...it began to dawn on me! They were all here for me! To see me! I couldn't decide whether to laugh or to cry so I did some of each! I hugged every single person and exclaimed over them and how they had managed to get there or to keep the secret. Unbeknownest to me, my sisters and cousins had spent the two days before hanging out and scrapbooking a memory book for me. I think they had as much fun doing that as they did surprising me. :) My kids had jumped through numerous hoops to make it happen and to get themselves there without me knowing, wisely keeping Jada out of the loop, :) and several people had come from afar. It was wonderful seeing them all again and so much fun having everyone there at the same time!

Its really kind of weird being on the receiving end when you are the one who usually does the planning for such events but it was done very well and I had a wonderful time!

The food was good, I blew out all the candles and opened lots of gifts. I also got to sing (not happy birthday either) with my extended family for the first time in probably 30 years. It was so awesome!...and we still sound pretty good together too!

With so many cameras on hand, I felt like a victim of the paparazzi the entire night. I'm looking forward to getting all those pictures back...but here are a few I already have....

Here they are lying in wait for me...

The look on my face!

Here's my gang, minus Jada but then she was busy with her cousins running wild. :)

My lovely sisters!

Happy Birthday to ME! Loved it!