an expected surprise turns unexpected

My mom had a birthday on December 2nd.

I had decided several months prior to that I wanted to have a surprise party for her.

She was turning 50 and thought a big deal should be made about that.

I also had decided that I wanted it to be a fun time for her rather than a gloom and doom, black roses, casket, and "over the hill" affair.

I enlisted the help of my brother and his bride-to-be.

She did a great job decorating!

Mom's favorite colors are lavendar and mint green.

I ordered a cake for her from Ambrosia Bakery in Hot Springs.

Rachel did an amazing job decorating.

Waiting for the special guest to arrive.

The birthday girl's special chair.

All 50 candles!

A lot of planning went in to this event on the part of my dad as well. He had to try to convince my mom to go out with him and somehow get her to the restaurant. He had initially told me that he would handle it. I told him that I would call and ask mom if she wanted to go to dinner with all of us for her birthday but he insisted that he could get her there. He said he would call her last minute and ask her to go out to eat. And in reality, he had a hard time figuring it all out. He asked her numerous times through out the week what she wanted to do for her birthday (which put her radar on full alert because it was out of character). She told her co-workers that she knew her family was up to something. She didn't know what exactly, but knew there was something going on. I was glad that she had no idea exactly what I had been up to. I was able to get some of her old and new coworkers as well as some of her best friends that she hadn't seen in a while to come surprise her. It thrilled me that they turned out for her! I had flashbacks to the surprise we pulled off when my cousin Todd came back from the war and none of our family knew.

I am very thankful that my mom has such amazing people in her life.

SURPRISE!

Sandy and Nette

My brother, Seth, and I.

The Whole Gang

Nana got a sock monkey that roots for the Razorbacks!

The girls were asked to help with the clean up.

They were a little too good at getting rid of the balloons.

We hope you had a great birthday, Nana! We had lots of fun planning it.

We look forward to many more years of surprises!

Livi and LoranaDee's

Getting ready for her first professional hair wash!

a little bit excited to get started

(notice where she ate concrete on her upper lip at school the day before)

She's got the "Hill chin" going.

Her first ringlets that were excecuted...  :(

It was so much fun watching her get her first hair cut.

Miss Beth was showing Olivia her new 'do.

All three girls got cuts that day.

Olivia begged Miss Beth to straighten her hair. Miss Beth didn't really want to straighten all of those pretty curls but she gave in to Olivia's requests. Olivia, Makayla, and Abi all walked out with shorter, straight hair.

And I do have those first ringlets saved for a scrap book.

SuPeR hErO dAy

It was super hero day at school.

This is 'SUPER O'.

She is a pretty cool super hero.

KayKay was a pretty neat Super Gal too.

Together: They were an unstoppable duo!!

pumpkin patch post

This dude was all up in my grill.

And he was funny.

As you can see, it a rough day to get a good photo of the girls.

They always seemed to look uncomfortable.

The pictures that I didn't try to stage turned out to have pretty good smiles in them.

We really enjoy going to the Schaeffer Family Farm Corn Maze every year.

We actually went twice this year because we went on a week day the first time and several of the attractions were not open. (And one of the best reasons for going are the giant corn dogs and funnel cake.The concession was not open the first time we went. So we tried again later and were successful!)

We had a great time at the pumpkin patch!!
Can't wait for next year's trip.