50th Wedding Anniversary (Part 1)

All the behind the scenes shenanigans.... JJ and I started planning, picked a date... couldn't be the 27th the day AFTER their anniversary... they would have thought we forgot....BBall games....ice fishing derbies....winter schedules etc. The 20th it was. 

I created an invitation, JJ and I reviewed the list and I emailed it out... and then they decided to tell me they were going to FL in... JANUARY... but not sure when...CountryDad had been to AAA to start conversations... so I called AAA... no one there was assigned to them yet so I asked that they leave a sticky note or perhaps a company email that they could NOT be gone 1/20 as we were planning a SURPRISE party.... 

fast forward to after Christmas... it was rainy... cold... yucky... CountryMum called me to say they were headed to a travel agency in the town next to mine... I asked all the leading questions.... "oh really? What's it called? Oh yah? Are you going to talk to anyone specific? Oh Karen you say?? Ok....." 

So I call the travel agency.... "Karen...you CANNOT let them be gone 1/20..." 

CountryRents show up at our house after and say they are all booked for 1/30ish....PHEW... Crisis averted. 

Next up OPERATION STEAL THEIR STUFF... 

Trouble with this is 1) they are ALWAYS home 2) if one leaves the other stays home and 3) We came up with a plan and CountryDad threw his back out... not gonna make it out of the house.... dag-gum

So thank GOODNESS I had Thursday before the party COMPLETELY off from work so I could see Loretta and run ALL.THE.PARTY.ERRANDS. BUT NOW....CountryDad gets an appointment to have a shot in his back for 1:45 so I race around the Big City and meet JJ at the house at 1:30. He sneaks through making sure we are in FACT ALONE and we zip upstairs... we've gathered a few things and all of a sudden he hears a vehicle and says "someone's here"... sheer PANIC mode sets in for me and I say NO THERE ISN'T like I can make whomever NOT be there... but thank GOODNESS it was JUST their trash guy....

CountryMum had everything exactly where I thought it was going to be so it was a quick in and out 15 min job....mission accomplished picture

From their house I ran home to unload everything that needed to be refrigerated and then to pick up MIL so she could help me with the flower arrangements. I really wanted to hit the ground running on Friday with the help I had lined up so we pounded out all the flowers in about an hour. That meant that Friday we could go from THIS (BEFORE)

To all hands on deck... we started around 4 and I was the last one to leave around 6:00

I could NOT have done the decorations and brainstorming the room and layout without this girl right here. It all started with "do you have a dress form I can rent" and turned into my right-hand girl right here...

After we were done on Friday night...

Speaking of gals I could not have done it without.... SIL L made the cupcakes and the banana split conversation starters and responded to all my crazy texts and phone calls.... as did sweet MIL... MIL is a worker bee... you give her a job and that gal was in my back pocket whenever I needed her, including TRYING to get them out of the HOUSE for me!

BIL L took pics for me and I'm hoping to get those soon... but these are what I snagged with my phone...

I love that CountryMum "could not remember the last time I was surprised...." 

Really?

Or maybe?

But always fun to do it again... and manage to pull off surprising CountryDad too this time...even if they did show up over 20 minutes EARLY.... surprising US and the guests that had yet to arrive....

So special to have Ant Beth there and meet her husband Tom... 

Phew.... I think everyone had fun, JJ's slide show was amazing and these two were surprised! Mission accomplished! More pics to come....