Well the fall was a little big busy for us, with Brooke's first birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, 2 baby showers and just getting ready for Brax in general, so I didn't get plans finalized for date/time/place until the week before Brax was born. I went ahead and put down a deposit on the place and waited for Braxton's arrival to do the invites. I also had my sister's baby shower that I was throwing a month after Brax's arrival, so that first month was jam packed! I finished the invites one night, and had Mitch check them, just to tell me that there was a typo. I was pretty much ready to shoot myself. Just saying. Anyway, I printed them again and got them out the next week.
As a gift, we decided to make a memory book for her with different memories or letters from her friends and family. So after the invites went out, I started receiving everyone's imput and compiling pictures to start her book. I spent hours typing, proofing, editing and adding page after page of people's memories with, thoughts of and letters to my mom. It was such an encouraging project for me, because while I know how wonderful my mom is, you never know if others see that too. What a blessing to know that they do!
I then got started on decorations and planning the food. I checked prices, waited for sales, bought materials and made centerpieces. For the centerpieces, I wanted to incorporate the pictures and stories that I was getting from others and somehow display them on the tables, so I thought about Easter Egg Trees. I bought some at Micheals, spray painted them white so they would really pop, and pulled out all the branches so that I could put the pictures and stories in them like they had gotten 'caught' in the trees. They turned out really well, unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of them. :(
The week of the party was very hectic, trying to get everything ready and done and trying desperately not to leak it to my mom! I'm telling you, this was a hard secret to keep! But when the weekend came around, we went to running! Friday I met Josh and Amy at Costco to buy the food, and Amy took a good amount of it back to her house to prep for us. (Thankfully) I headed home and tried to rest up enough to have the energy for the next day!
We got up bright and early Saturday morning, and I got the kids to take an early nap. I loaded and loaded and loaded up the car some more and when the kiddos woke up, I loaded them too! lol. We all met at the community center at 1 to get started on the decorating and food prep. Mr Larry had gotten a smoker/grill from his bank so that he could cook all the chicken, and Mrs Teri and Sarah had come with Amy to help out. I was so overwhelmed that they would both give up their whole days to come and help us, it was just so sweet, and GREATLY needed! :) Sarah got put on baby duty and had some one-on-one time with Brax as well as some ball-rolling-time with Brookelynne while Amy and I pulled out the tables, and Mrs Teri got started in the kitchen. With all the help we were rolling along splendidly! It was looking great!
Josh was helping Mr Larry season, and cook the chicken outside and coming inside occasionally to check up on us or get more drinks. Before I knew it we were almost done! I had to leave at 4 to go and pick Mom up, and had thought that might be rushing it, but everything was pretty well done when I loaded the kids up to head out. I left Mrs Teri and Amy in charge and got on the road! The kids did well until about a mile from Grandma's house and then Brax lost it! Needless to say, the drive back was a little loud. Mom didn't blink and eye when I called Mitch and asked him to meet us at the car since Brax was crying! When we pulled in, there was a spot right out front, what luck! :) Mitch opened Brax's door and said "Oh, he's really crying" And I wanted to be like, um, YEAH! ;) But Mom didn't hear him, so no harm, no foul. With everything in hand, and Mom carrying Brookelynne we walked to the door. Mitch opened it for my mom as everyone inside yelled "Surprise!" :) It was priceless!
The week of the party was very hectic, trying to get everything ready and done and trying desperately not to leak it to my mom! I'm telling you, this was a hard secret to keep! But when the weekend came around, we went to running! Friday I met Josh and Amy at Costco to buy the food, and Amy took a good amount of it back to her house to prep for us. (Thankfully) I headed home and tried to rest up enough to have the energy for the next day!
We got up bright and early Saturday morning, and I got the kids to take an early nap. I loaded and loaded and loaded up the car some more and when the kiddos woke up, I loaded them too! lol. We all met at the community center at 1 to get started on the decorating and food prep. Mr Larry had gotten a smoker/grill from his bank so that he could cook all the chicken, and Mrs Teri and Sarah had come with Amy to help out. I was so overwhelmed that they would both give up their whole days to come and help us, it was just so sweet, and GREATLY needed! :) Sarah got put on baby duty and had some one-on-one time with Brax as well as some ball-rolling-time with Brookelynne while Amy and I pulled out the tables, and Mrs Teri got started in the kitchen. With all the help we were rolling along splendidly! It was looking great!
Josh was helping Mr Larry season, and cook the chicken outside and coming inside occasionally to check up on us or get more drinks. Before I knew it we were almost done! I had to leave at 4 to go and pick Mom up, and had thought that might be rushing it, but everything was pretty well done when I loaded the kids up to head out. I left Mrs Teri and Amy in charge and got on the road! The kids did well until about a mile from Grandma's house and then Brax lost it! Needless to say, the drive back was a little loud. Mom didn't blink and eye when I called Mitch and asked him to meet us at the car since Brax was crying! When we pulled in, there was a spot right out front, what luck! :) Mitch opened Brax's door and said "Oh, he's really crying" And I wanted to be like, um, YEAH! ;) But Mom didn't hear him, so no harm, no foul. With everything in hand, and Mom carrying Brookelynne we walked to the door. Mitch opened it for my mom as everyone inside yelled "Surprise!" :) It was priceless!
She started to back up and I had to push her so she would go inside! :) She was looking around like "What in the world?" and started crying as soon as she started to recognize all the people who had come to celebrate her!
These are some of the hugs and hellos she got!
We all gathered around and Josh asked the blessing over the food and thanked the Lord for Mom and all of the 60 years that He's given her so far, and everyone dug in! There was chicken, green beans, corn, salad and several appetizers, so everyone had plenty to choose from! And the star of the meal was definitely the chicken! I don't know how he did it, because I've never had a piece of barbqued chicken that wasn't dried out, but Mr Larry's was DELICIOUS!!! And everyone said so! Mom got to visit with everyone and while everyone was eating, Josh and I read her our entries in her book. (I'll post them in a separate post). She cried, as did Josh (I love my sweet brother) and everyone loved them. It was a sweet time of honoring my mom and the woman and mother she is.
After the food, we had her blow out the candles, :) She was obviously very excited about doing so! (and about the fact that I didn't actually put 60 individual candles on the cake! lol.
Thank you to everyone who came out and who contributed to her book. She LOVED it and is so grateful for all of you!
No comments:
Post a Comment