Surprise Party...

(my Grandma and mom)

Around the beginning of May my brother's wife, Missy, contacted me to see if I wanted to help her plan a surprise party for my mom's 50th birthday. Ironically, I was planning on calling her to see if she wanted to help me plan a party. So we got our creative juices flowing and planned a fun party for my mom. My parents and 2 of my siblings were in Boise for 3 days and didn't know we were coming up while they were gone. My mom thought we were coming on Saturday, the day they were coming back from Boise but we really came on Thursday to get the final plans worked out. We told my mom we were taking her to a restaurant for her birthday but didn't want her to know which one so we blindfolded her. Meanwhile, many of her friends and family members were waiting quietly in the gym at the church.

She was very surprised. The church was the last place she thought she was and she didn't think so many people would be there. We ate Bowtie Festival (her favorite) from Johnny Carino's as well as some other pasta Missy had made with yummy bread and salads.


We had a fun program lined up to celebrate the night. We had a "How well do you know Lynne?" trivia game. My dad and one of her best friend's won first place answering the most questions right. My Uncle Brent had written a song for her and sang it for everyone. The song was a rewrite of "Bye, bye Miss American Pie." Until last year, my mom thought the song was "Buy, buy me some 'merican Pie." So he changed the words around with some inside jokes. It was so cute and he did an awesome job!

All her kids wrote a memory of her and her brother read the memories and she guessed who had written it. She got them all right! It was fun to hear some funny stories about her. We then had some other family members and friends tell other funny memories.

My dad, Abbie, Landon, Ethan, and Tyler (4 of my siblings)

We had 2 ice cream cakes and sang "Happy Birthday" to her. After that she opened her presents, which were gifts to fill her "Over the Hill Survival Kit." She got some pretty funny things. One of her walking partners gave her a walker with a card that said, "Let's be walking partners forever!" She got lots of old folks' supplies including: reading glasses, diapers, knitting needles/yarn, an alarm on a necklace (I made it to be her "lifeline"), lots of books on becoming old, denture cleaner, and other funny things. We all had a good laugh. The night was brought to a close with an awesome slideshow my brother, Devin and his wife Missy put together. It had pictures of her as a baby all the way through childhood, teenage years, college, marriage, kids, and then grandkids. It was put to the "Mama Mia" soundtrack (one of her favorite movies, which she saw 8ish times and now owns). My dad ended with a cute poem that he wrote for her that was so sweet. It was such a fun night and I was really happy with how it had turned out. I love you, Mom!!