Yesterday, Kristy and Jess turned 40. It's not the most exciting age to turn and they planned on ignoring the birthday, but the family had other plans. Lori and Jamie starting talking and thought that 40 was not a birthday that should be ignored and that we should do a surprise birthday party for them. I was of course all in. What a great idea!
The idea was thrown out to the group in the summer and that is when the planning started. However it really came together just a couple weeks before the party. And the entire thing was almost ruined when we found out that Jess had drill that day (this last Saturday) so we had to let him in on some of the surprise so that he could get home. It all worked out in the end though... thankfully.
Friday night Jamie and Lori were both in town and had been working on the party all day. I had to work (and work has been stressful) so I didn't help as much as I would have liked to, but I helped as much as I could. Friday night I was at my parents house helping blow up balloons... I saw "the plan" on the chalk board and got a picture of Billy going over the plan with my dad. I thought it was great.
My idea and big contribution to the party was the black & white photo's that I put on the wall in the shape of 40. There ended up being a lot of extra pictures, so we put them around the birthday sign that Jamie made and on the table.
My parents rented "The party bus" and Lori and Billy decorated the inside and out.. I brought my lights to put up inside the van which was fun. We didn't ride too many places, but it made it fun to all be together in a party van.
They started their surprise with a scavenger hunt that everyone worked on together and we had Reanne and Sierra take them on... so they didn't know we were involved. That is something Reanne and Sierra would do, so Kristy thought it was just them being cute... until one of their clue's lead them to birthday shirts that Jamie made for them. They put them on and then their next clue was to look for the party bus that we were all in. When they found us we all came out of the van and surprised them and said happy birthday. Get in the van!
We were taking them to several places. They were each supposed to be a surprise, but Reanne ruined the first one. Ha ha... As she got out of the car said, "Have fun at Get Out Games" ha ha... oh well. So, first stop was Get out Games. Kristy had been before, but had been wanting to go again with adults. Jess had never been before. Heck, I hadn't been yet. So that was a fun way to start. We were put in the Egyptian room and we made it out before the hour was up. We had 2 minutes left to be exact, but I don't think we would have finished if we didn't have a lot of help from staff at the end. I don't know if anyone could honestly. It was fun though!
Next we were off to Jess and Kristy's favorite restaurant, the Bombay house! I love it too. Great Indian food. Chad and Clara joined in on this one. So it was nice to have the entire family together... even just for an hour.
Then it was off to FastKart Speedway to race each other in Speed Go Karts. None of us had done this before, so it was new for all of us... which was fun. We sadly were not all on the same track... but we all had a great time racing.
Then it was back to my parents house for the party with the kids. While we were gone, the kids had made themselves and all of us birthday party hats. We had a Photo Booth that I set up with props. We had cake that Jamie and Lori made in the shape of 40. A lemon one for Kristy and chocolate one for Jess. Jamie also made the cutest birthday card that we all signed. At the end they opened the 40 little gifts that we all pitched in to get them.
Pretty much an epic birthday party. We all get to enjoy it with the birthday couple. So fun that Jamie and Lori and families made it extra special by putting it on and coming into town to celebrate. The entire family isn't together very often, so it is extra special when we are. I love my family. They are the best. Super creative and thoughtful and fun. So glad we could all make Jess and Kristy's birthday extra special, because they sure deserve it. Love them and everyone in the family! What a special day.
2 comments:
As always, thanks for documenting our family memories. This was an especially good one!!
That was an awesome night! FYI I didn't make the chocolate "4" cake, Lori did. I'm so happy that everything turned out well, and I'm happy most of all that Kristy and Jess felt special.
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