Mom's 50th Birthday

On August 2nd (yes, that's 3 weeks ago! Sorry to all the family members out there who couldn't make it to the party and have been waiting for this!) we had a surprise 50th birthday party for Mom. I think me, Stephanie, Erin, and Dad sent something like 187 e-mails back and forth planning it. We barely talked on the phone about it because either she was around or my kids were there (we definitely didn't want them finding out about it), and e-mail is a way to talk to a bunch of people at once at each person's convenience. Andy kept asking me, "Why don't you just call each other?" Anyways, we had mom convinced that she was going out to a fancy dinner in Buckhead with some friends, so she got dressed up nice to meet them at their house, and then we were all there for the surprise. She was so excited about such a fancy restaurant that we started worrying that she would be disappointed that she wasn't getting to go that night, but she was fine. She was totally surprised and had no clue at all. Her birthday wasn't officially until the 13th, so she wasn't expecting anything just yet. Plus, her and Dad went camping a week before the party and Dad told her to go buy an air mattress to sleep on, and that it could be her birthday present. It was funny when she called me to complain about that a little. Poor Dad, I had to act like I believed it and that it was completely inappropriate for a 50th birthday. But, we both agreed that he'd probably do something else for her, like he always does. So, after all the lying and sneaking, it all turned out great. We all discussed before she got there how guilty we felt for all the lies, but I guess it's one of the rare situations where it's worth it in the end. Here's a picture of the cake and a little video clip of her reaction. In the picture, the cake says, "Allison Makes 50 Fabulous," and it has a lady sort of lounging on the top. It turned out really cute, but the order was sort of a disaster. Stephanie took all these pictures to the bakery and talked to the lady, and then called a couple of days later to check on the order and the lady had no idea what she was talking about. Steph finally got the lady to remember, but then 1 or 2 days before the party she called again to check on things, and the lady had totally lost the order and needed Steph to bring everything to her again. Thank goodness it all turned out ok, and the lady took a little off the cost for all the trouble without us even asking her to. In the video, I was way over on the side instead of getting right in front of her, so it's not the clearest shot, and I was pretty excited myself about the whole thing, so my hands were a little jittery when I was recording.