Surprise mom and dad!

There have been a few reasons of why I haven't kept up with blogging over the past few months. Here is one of the main ones. Back in February as I was getting my calendar ready for the year and filling in important dates, I realized this October would be my parents 25th wedding anniversary. I was talking to my sister in law, Julie, and threw out the idea of doing something for them. She said we should totally do it, and with that encouragement I started thinking...Soon later found out I was pregnant and knew I couldn't throw something 3 days after I was due so I started planning tentatively for the summer. So for the past 6 months or so I was planning a party for my parents! SOOOO HARD! It was probably harder for me because I talk to my parents so much that keeping it a surprise was difficult. I had a couple bumps along the way, but here is how the day went. My dad, brother Steve, and hubby went to play in a golf tournament at noon. I spent my night before and the next morning baking a bunch of desserts telling my mom they were for my friend Jessica who was throwing a family party. I made my mom and I pedicure appointments for 5:15. It was difficult to get her out of the house because #1 she was having us organize a ton of stuff and 2 she didn't want to leave Chelsea out so we had to convince her that Chelsea and Heidi (her bf) were doing something anyways and we told her we would come back to get Chelsea, JK, Ben and Joe for a nice dinner when we were done. I took her to the mall to look at a baby boutique and then to the nail place. Of course when we get there she just wants a nail polish change like me...so my 45 minute appointment is cut down to like 15 minutes. Holy crap! Luckily I diddle daddled in the bathroom for a few minutes and took my time letting my nails dry all the while hurriedly texting my brother Steve and sister Chelsea to see what the heck I'm supposed to do. We got in the car and I just told my mom that my brother Steve had a business appointment that got moved up and he needed to leave the golf tournament the minute they were done and we needed to pick up our husbands, and I got on the freeway to drive to Canyon Country to pick them up. We stopped and got gas and I got the report from home that everything was going good. Chairs-check, tables-check, music-check, desserts-check, family setting up-check, getting ready to move cars-check. We got to the golf course, I stalled again and did my make up in the car since I knew the guys were running late. Had a mini high school reunion with guys that had come to play, could have done without that, but good stalling. Got my dad who was not very happy to be leaving because he paid for the dinner that now he wasn't going to get to eat so he was kind of pouting. I had to pretty much throw a tantrum in the parking lot so I could drive his car the LONG way home, got my way and we were leaving at 6:45 PERFECT!

Here are my parents making their way out...My brother JK likes to "hunt" things in our backyard, so I told them that he thought he shot a rattlesnake on the tennis court and before we left for dinner we had to go check it out. They recognized none of the many cars outside on the block! Once they walked out the sliding door, my pouty dad saw a ton of heads and thought JK was throwing a party or something and started walking back inside, I pulled him out and once we made it to the tennis court, and everyone yelled HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! this was their faces. My mom of course was emotional and my dad had to calm down because JK and Ben were almost toast :)
Here they are hugging some good friends, getting over the shock. It was so exciting! There were at least 50 people there for the actual surprise part.
Here is my dad, with cousin Joey and Rayme, and cousin Scott and Rachel. It was so nice to see how many people made it in for the party! My brother Tim and sister in law Julie flew in, Aunt Janet happened to be in town from St George, and a bunch of family drove an hour plus to be there!
My cute cousin Mandi snagged some pictures of Joe and I am borrowing them from her blog :)
Enjoying his rice krispy treat
Here is Tina, holding Ryan, me and my mom holding Joe who was having an extremely hard time sharing her. I don't know how my sister in law pulled off making like 10 desserts and driving 3 kids up from Irvine, putting the finishing touches on my desserts, and setting up and taking down, superstar!
Here is my mom with Elisabeth (Heidi's mom), and yes my mom is still in shock!
We cleared the "dance floor" and had them dance to their song, How Do I Live, to which my shy dad lasted about 35 seconds
Had them cut their cake and give each other a bite, and then we stopped embarrassing them
Here is the end of the night when we were getting ready to head inside...Chelsea, dad, Jack Jr, Dan, Jim, Steve and Steve. Notice my dad and Steve with their trophy. So excited! My brother, Steve, is relaxing from a tough day of lying to dad and my mom. He has never lied before, pretty perfect!
My mom, Michelle, Chris, and Jan...Thursday tennis group. They have played for as long as I can remember
My mom and Belinda, thanks Belinda for making so many desserts, letting us borrow your table, helping setting up and just for being so wonderful!
Here are the centerpieces, we decided on red and white and simple
Thanks to Heidi for setting up and picking up the roses!
We did 3 different centerpieces for 6 tables
Here would be the "cool" table...Ben & JK are quite the models very happy to be surrounded by such cute girls
Here are some of the treats, we had tons! McKeons and their sweets! It isn't a party without a ton! When the party was over our family went inside and watched a dvd of pictures that Julie made. I found all of the pictures, scanned them in at Wal Mart and got them to her to make it look professional. That was probably the hardest most time consuming part. We had about 500 pictures and I loved all of them! Such good memories! We also gave them a couple nights get away which they are going to be using coming up soon! They sure need it!
I have to say sorry to mainly Sammy and Tina who cleaned up everything! Once I got my parents to the party, I seriously felt like I could breathe for the first time in awhile. My brain had been so crazy getting email addresses ready for the evite, calling some people I couldn't get emails for, praying no one would say anything, getting pictures together (sneaking them out of frames at our house, or off scrapbook pages & replacing them without my mom knowing), hiding decorations under the bed, hiding chairs at Sammy's house, finding good hotel rates at any Marriott in Southern California, getting desserts ready and made, inviting their closest friends and family since they are a kind of private couple, figuring out how to get my parents out of the house to set up on a Saturday in the afternoon, and never leaking a word of it to my mom who is pretty much the best ever and I tell her EVERYTHING! Happy 25th Anniversary mom and dad! Love you! Thanks for being such good examples and loving each other no matter what. Here are a couple stories that I love about them. Once we got back from Coronado and my dad asked my mom if his bed was turned down yet, to which my poor husband started laughing and said, "we just got back from the 5 star hotel!" He didn't know that my mom turns down their bed every night and with her it's like he is always at a 5 star hotel. A couple months ago, while my parents were at work, my dad got a call and couldn't take it so my mom answered. The caller hung up and my mom thought that was weird people don't usually prank call. A couple minutes later my dad said he needed to go to the bank and would be right back. My parents go EVERYWHERE together, they work together, go to the bank together, eat together, why they even need 2 cars baffles me :) My mom offered to go with him and he kept telling her no. As she was following him out of the store, she said she saw their jeweler duck behind a pillar by the bank! My dad was trying to surprise her for Mother's Day! It would have been sweet no matter what, but it happened to be even sweeter with how crappy the economy is and how they were struggling anyways, but he wanted to show her some appreciation. I just think my parents are wonderful together and wish I had the energy my mom does to be superwife and supermom and superbusiness woman, and superyoung woman leader. Love you guys!