Knowing that we would be having family in from out of town, my first plan of attack was to make sure my mom had time off of work. I told my mom that Matt had won a trip to Vegas from work and I needed her to use some vacation time to watch Avie. She never batted an eyelash and was super excited she'd have her granddaughter all to her self for 4 days. (ha ha little did she know!)
I had hoped early on in planning that I could get all my mom's 4 siblings to Florida to surprise her but being spread out from California to Canada, it was hard so in the end her youngest brother along with her niece and nephew drove down from Michigan and my brother and his wife from Virginia. I was able to catch the "surprise" moments when her family arrived on video (listed below - 1st video was February 10th my brother and his wife from VA - 2nd video was February 11th with her brother, niece and nephew who just drove in from MI). Once all the surprises were revealed, we told her that on her birthday, February 12th, we were having a huge seafood boil for her celebration and for her to start calling all her friends to invite them. It was a huge success with over 40 people there to help celebrate my awesome mom!
Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - Eric and Ailleen arrive from VA
Thursday, February 11, 2010 - Uncle Marc, Stephanie and Sini arriving from MI after driving 15+ hours
Party time with friends and family!
We bought about 80lbs of seafood from Joe Patti's (a local fresh seafood market)
Mom opening up a can of prunes - an "old people" joke started by my sister-in-law
that's so awesome! i was watching the video with your mom and her brother here at work and had to stop it every 5 seconds cause i kept tearing! lol. such an awesome present lisa!
ReplyDeleteThanks Joy! I get teary eyed watching that video too. I LOVE surprises that tug at the heart. ;)
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