Surpise Party - Happy 65th Birthday!

One of my most favorite people in the world, my mother-in-law Jeannine, turned a very young 65 while we were staying with her. We all thought it would be fun to try to pull off a surprise birthday party for her. But with a family our size, PLUS Tucker & I were staying at her house....that is no small feat. Jeannine is a planner, and notices everything. So we did have to tell a few "white lies" along the way. We made it sound like we were all really busy the night of her birthday, but that we'd plan to go to dinner the following night. So Neal asked her if he could take her to dinner the night of her birthday....and she was NOT okay with doing that while we were "stuck at home". She was cute, she kept saying "Neal, I do not want to go out to dinner while I could be spending time with my children who are visiting!". So I had to make up somewhere we were supposed to be that night so she would GO to "dinner".

We all met up at the park earlier that day and decorated, brought food, got blocks of ice for ice-blocking, my father-in-law prepared yummy potatoes and ribs in the dutch oven, I made a cake, etc, etc. And we had to do it all in secret.

So when Jeannine got off work, Neal got her in the car to go to "dinner" and had to make a few stops to stall for time (we weren't quite ready). When his final stop was at a park, Jeannine was surely a little irritated and wondered what in the world could be so important at a park?

They got out of the car and we all yelled "surprise!!" from the top of the hill! I think it took like 10 minutes for it to sink in what was happening!

It was a fun celebration. Annie made strawberry pies (Jeannine's favorite) and I made her a bday cake (because I like to!) in the shape of Mount Olympus, in honor of her recent achievement on the Mount! We prepared "65 things we love about Gam" and presented it to her (which caused lots of tears), and ate and played and had a fun time!

(Jeannine with her sister and niece)


Me and the Mt Olympus cake


ice blocking!


Maren and Tucker .....competition's ON!...............Lyndsy and Tucker


All the grandkids who were there....................( I love this pic of cousins River and Peyton....they play and fight constantly!)