Colorado!

For about the past year, I've been planning a surprise party for my dad's 60th birthday with my sister Ashley. I booked a barn out in Sedalia, CO, planned the food (which came from a TX style BBQ place), invited over 100 people (including his brother & sisters' families from UT), booked a band, planned a pregnancy and delivered my son 4 weeks prior to heading to CO so we could have a reason to gather. OK, so maybe some of it was luck-- but the plan to bless Gavin in CO gave my sisters family and mine a reason to travel to my parents house without causing my dad to suspect anything. We successfully pulled off the surprise and I learned a few things:

• I can be a good liar, but it kind of stresses me out... that goes double for my mom :)
  
• Not having to make the food is definitely the way to go
• Guests invited to surprise parties may drop off a card/gift the day of the party to say happy birthday (Hey...don't ruin it!)
• Having wedding decorations isn't so bad (there was a reception the next day and they decorated before the party)
• If you're using technology, plan on it failing-- and then stressing to pull something together. Ben did good :)
• The surprise will never be ruined for a 60 year-old man

My sister Ashley and I with my dad

Courtney & Jack getting ready to sing the entrance song of "You say it's your birthday" from Beatles

The "surprise" moment

Dancing and fun
{Check out that slide show projection below... it took me months to collect pictures for it, and our computer crashed right before the party. Plan B was almost as good :)}

You could say the party was "thumbs up"!

The rest of the weekend kept us busy too. Olivia turned 3! Everyone sang to her at my dad's party too (her actual birthday).

Gavin Benjamin was blessed:

and lots of playtime





Good times!