Happy Birthday Mom!!

Friday was my mom's 60th birthday and my siblings & I had planned a family night out - bowling in hopes that Mom would think that was all we were doing for her birthday. Saturday we had a big surprise party planned with family coming from the island and friends. Friday night we all had a great time - we had to divide into two lanes as there were 12 of us bowling. In the first game my brother beat us all with a score of 209 (my score was a whopping 95) The second game went a little better for those of us in my lane. My mom beat us all with a score of 205 and I managed to break a hundred with a final score of 110! In both games my brother got a turkey (3 strikes in a row) in the final frame.& Saturday morning we all headed out to Langley to Jacques' house where we were having the party ( in case you don't know - Jacques in my mom's boyfriend) so that us kids could set up everything while Jacques occupied my mom. We had to set up shelters & tarps because the forecast was for rain. That in itself was quite the adventure as we tried to figure out how to arrange the two canopies we had along with tarps to make the largest space possible as we weren't totally sure how many people were going to show up. When Mom showed up, she was totally surprised and it was fun to walk her around the house where her mom & aunt Ann & uncle Ray were waiting. They had come over from the island on Friday and had stayed at my aunt's house.

My sister had arranged to rent a cotton candy machine that she had at her wedding as my mom had loved it and while we were picking it up at the party place we found a sash that said "60 & Sensational" I knew that we needed that for Mom as she was a Snowball Princess back when she was like 18 or 19 and how fun would it be to have photos of her now in a sash! She thought it was quite funny! It was also one of the few things that were for birthdays over 40 that weren't about being an old fart or being over the hill.

It was a lot of work but well worth it - it was a lot of fun to see all the people that came by to celebrate with Mom and also have us all just hang out together.