Here's To 40!

I have about twenty different posts drafted and have been meaning to complete, several of which are getting pretty old by this point, like about our trip to the National Zoo when Gigi and Papa were visiting, Emma's 2nd Birthday and Jackson's Baptism party, etc. But this is one that I have been dying to post about for months now, so I decided to put this one at the top of the list.

I've been keeping a secret since January and it's been killing me!!!

This year marked my parent's 40th wedding anniversary, and we threw them a surprise party! Yup, that's right....the big 4 - 0! It's pretty amazing when I think about it considering that I haven't even been alive that long, let alone married for that long! I get excited when Wes and I make it to the next anniversary and this year is only our sixth! :)

Back in January all the kids (meaning me, my two brothers and my sister-in-law) decided to put on a little shindig to help my parents celebrate this amazing milestone. There was a lot going on at the time with everyone, between my brother and sister-in-law's crazy schedule with their three kids, everything that was going on with Jackson and my parents were working on building a new house (and still are). Despite all of the craziness that was going on, it was something we really wanted to do, and we were really glad that we did.

There were lots of ups and downs throughout the process of throwing the big surprise party but it was a bit hit, even though we kept it a secret for 6 months and ended up having to tell mom and dad a mere four hours before the party. DOH! When I think about everything that my parents have done for all of us though, everything that was going on at the time seemed minuscule. They have been there, no matter what, and even though they are having a heck of a time with their new house, it ended up keeping them just distracted enough that they had no idea what was going on behind the scenes. At least not until we had to spill the beans.

They have pretty much been through the gamut over the past forty years with their three kids (two of which are only 13 months apart and one of which they keep trying to convince that she is adopted...yup, that's me). There have been so many laughs and even though they might be a little more spread out today since we all don't get together as often, they are still there. They now have six grand kids that light up when they see their Mimi and Pop, and those grand kids couldn't have asked for more loving grandparents.

I LOVE this picture....it's the sideburns.

I'm pretty sure my dad still has those glasses too. :)

My beautiful Mom on her wedding day.

Although it wasn't a huge party, and we were trying to be money conscious where we could, we had about twenty five people including some of my parent's closest friends. Despite broken air conditioners and plans to be at the beach, it was great to see how many of their friends came to help us celebrate.

We wanted to make the party special, so we tried to put together as many small touches as we could. We rented some extra tables and chairs for seating since our house isn't exactly huge, we cleaned out Emma's playroom and the dining room and soon enough it was party central.




 

We made the banners, labels, napkin inserts and table signs were in PowerPoint. I had the banners printed by Kinko's since there was so much color in them, strung them together with some plain white ribbon, and just printed the labels at home.

This was a great way to keep cost down on decorations too, instead of buying a bunch of flowers, we just bought one bouquet and several $0.75 vases from Micheal's and put one bud in each vase. The pink hydrangeas that you see on the tables and our mantle were cut from our backyard.

Each guest got to take home a personalized beer koozie (which was a huge hit with this big boating crowd) and a bottle of wine. 

And what's a party without cake?!?! Whenever we have a special occasion, I head right to Sugarbakers for the cake. That's where we got our cakes for our wedding and I have been in love ever since. That would be where Emma Kathryn had her chocolate cupcake at 9:00AM. :) Sugarbakers did a fantastic job like usual, especially with recreating the little fondant sailboat that we had as our little theme. Mom and Dad got to take home the top tier!

I was running around trying to snap a few shots before the party started, and I took a picture of one of the other flowers in one of our Michael's vases that we put on our fireplace.

And yes, I am fully aware that it is not Christmas time and having a be-dazzled reindeer on our mantle is a little out of season...I just love it.

However, I did not realize that my Bourbon and Ginger glass was showing until I downloaded the picture. DOH! So yes, I had to calm the nerves a little and have a little something even before the party started. But I promise I was good during the party!! :)

I also have to give a big shout out to my cousin Kim who came over with her hubby and her baby Jillian (who is rapidly becoming Emma's favorite person to talk about). Kim helped me so much the night before that I couldn't have done it without her!! Of course she will probably never come over again for fear that I will make her fold a thousand napkins and unload/load my dishwasher again. :) Thanks again Kim!!

I really hope my parents had a great time, and I hope they got to relax at least for a little while and enjoy their friends who came to help the celebrate the big 40! Congratulations again Mom and Dad!!