Susan & Bernie's SURPRISE Birthday Party!

Shhhh... The invitations read.  Luckily we’ve all been really busy and so less face-time made it easier for me to lie.  We fooled Susan and Bernie into coming over by telling them we were doing family pictures. We thought Susan might have figured it out at one point and was playing along, but nope, we successfully and completely blew them both away with the surprise!

We had everyone out on the back patio, so when then drove up, they saw everyone and Addisyn and Piper holding a “surprise!” banner. Their reactions were awesome!

Bernie had just turned 80, and Susan’s 70th birthday was right around the corner, so they were unsuspecting. We figured birthdays that end in 0 are deserving of something special, and we really wanted to do something nice to give back to Susan and Bernie for all they have done for us. They have given up a lot of opportunities with friends in order to be here for us and the grandkids, so this was a nice chance to let them be with all their friends at once.

The party was on April 5, 2014.  I think we had 40 people there.


We hosted with Mike and Katherine it at our house, but we couldn’t tell Addisyn and Piper until the morning of.  They had to help clean house for “family pictures” too.  Good thing they didn’t think to ask too many questions about the birthday banner they helped color or the extra case of wine we bought.   They were even with me at Daphne’s restaurant when I ordered the food.  They of course love a party, so they had a good time entertaining guests, and were a nice help serving the cake too.

There were lots of smiles all evening...

Bernie with sister Evelyn:

Pam and Stan:

Ann and Sal:

Katelyn (who kindly came over early and helped set up and entertain the girls before the party!):

The kids table ;-)

Great weather on the patio:

Rita and Joyce:

Summer:

Ann and Joyce:

Carrie and Tom:

Kari Dodson:

Barb Dodd:

Barb and Mary:

Rita and John:

Linda Ainza:

Pam:

Claire Kodis and Sharyn Tosh:

Evelyn Benner:

Sal, Ann, Linda, Al:

Justin (naturally 10 feet off the ground):

3 generations, Karen, Ann, Joyce:

Karen & Chris and Marissa:

The Lotus was fun to sit in...
Kari and Marissa:

Carrie and Tom

Mike

Rita and John

Marissa

A custom birthday gift:

A BIG THANK YOU to everyone for coming and keeping it a secret!  We had a great time at the party and even found time to relax at the end.

Photos credits: Karen & Chris, Annie H, Stan R, Sharyn T, Kari D, and Joyce E.  Thank you for sending me your pictures!