A Surprise Party!

ARHHHHHHH!!! FINALLY I CAN REVEAL IT TO THE WORLD!!!!! After months and months of planning- my family and I pulled off the most spectacular surprise 50th birthday party for my mum last night, 6th February!

I have been dying to vent about the stresses and strains of actually planning and organising it, but I know mum reads this blog from time to time and couldn't risk letting it slip! For the last few months it has been nothing but dresses, cars, decorations, champagne, music, invitations, place settings, slide shows, presents, set menu's and photographers and that's just to name a few! It has been stressful and we have verged on the edge of arguments,  and there has been meeting after meeting. God knows how many phone calls have been made between my older brother Richard and his girlfriend Claire, my younger sister Rachael and her boyfriend Phil and my Grandparents but I'm guessing our phone bills will have rocketed by a couple of hundred pounds next month.

That said, it has also been amazing, emotional and endearing. Somehow without even discussing it we seemed to each take up responsibility for tasks and things seem to have just slotted into place. My job (amongst others- including keeping the peace so no arguments occur) was to design the slide show. It has been an amazing roller coaster of emotions trailing through reams and reams of old photographs supplied by my grandparents. Thank god I have the facility to scan photographs and import them onto a slide show. Grandpa finds it hard even to get the mouse working, bless him! I have been up in the loft for the first time in my flat to try and dig out old photographs (I did try and send Dan up but he wasn't around- I just got the lend of the ladders!) and nearly killed myself with a mound of heavy boxes and getting tangled in the loft insulation. After all that, I still didn't manage to find the photographs.
After about a month of starting the slide show- it was finished and I'm going to try my hardest to upload it onto the blog for you all to see. It was quite amazing really because for the first time I realised that she hasn't always been mum. She was a girl, a teenager and a young lady. She had first cars, first days of school and first boyfriends (and kisses). Honestly the stories you could hear about my mum from my grandparents would make your toes curl. There has been laughter and tears whilst putting together this slide show. It has been a privilege to do.

The night itself was amazing and went without a hitch. There was champagne and tears (luckily I remembered the tissues) but never again will I take responsibility to organise a party. We had amazing food and amazing dresses (the boys were all in shirts and ties) and it went past in a beautiful, champagne tinted haze. I looked around the room a few times and everyone was happy and everyone was smiling and mum looked the happiest I'd ever seen her. After the slide show, the mascara started to run (I'm sure I told everyone to wear waterproof mascara!) and we moved onto speeches which had everyone in tears again but it was just a brilliant night. The stress of planning and organising all the details had all been worth it, it worked and it worked well. Maybe a little side career in party planning wouldn't be such a bad idea after all :-)

The function room

Mum with massive 50 balloons!

Mum when finding out her present! (Silverstone laps in a Ferrari!)

Me and the Croc!