The Suprise

(Horrible pic, I know, but it captures the moment)

Finally, the details to the best birthday party ever. I had to gather some pictures from people so thank you Courtney, Laura and of course the best looking uncle ever, Ruben. He was the professional photographer at my party and I can't wait to see all of the pictures.

Mark had been working for months on what to do for my birthday. Although I was happy with just going to dinner with the kids, it didn't make him happy. He took our phonebook with him to work one day and started making calls and printing up invitations. He called some of my old friends from high school, my girlfriends here in the desert and my family. He planned a fabulous party at the Westin Mission Hills in a small ball room complete with a band, a DJ, an open bar and the best buffett of all my favorite foods. It helps that Mark still works there when needed, so Chef Joel made the food extra special.

Friday before the party Mark decides to tell me that I needed to go shopping for a dress. Um, I don't wear dresses and a day is just not enough time to find a cute one. Not to mention that Carly and Sonny were coming over and I needed to clean. Whatever we're doing couldn't I just wear my uniform of jeans and a cute top? Nope, I had to go buy a dress, with my kids in tow Saturday morning. It wasn't easy. At 5:15 Saturday afternoon Mark then tells me I needed to be ready by 6:00. Gees, couldn't you have told me at 8:00 this morning? We headed off to Roys for appetizer and as we're walking in Mark tells me he has a small suprise. Uh oh, my anxiety is kicking in. There waiting to suprise me were Alec and Erica. I felt relieved because it was a perfect suprise and we got to just relax and talk along with Carly and Sonny. At some point Mark realized that his watch is 15 minutes slow and demands that we finish our drinks because we have 8:00 reservations in Palm Springs. Well, we never made it to Palm Springs and detoured over to the Westin, blind folded, and was literally pushed into a room of about 70 people. Holy moly. It was a lot to take in but absolutely perfect. We ate, laughed and danced the night away. Grandpa always gets the first dance with me. :)

I wish I could describe how happy and blown away I was. It was more than a girl could ever ask for and I felt so special that all of these people were there for me. Carly took all the RSVP's and Courtney put the personal touches by decorating the tables with flowers and pictures of me, family and friends. Of course Mark gets the husband of the year award in my eyes. I can't thank him enough for making my birthday so special. It still blows me away and I wish I could do it again. It went by so fast. The biggest question of the evening: Were you suprised? Absolutely. I knew something was going on because as I said before, I'm a huge snoop, but I didn't know to what extent. As soon as he said we had reservation in Palm Springs, my thoughts were on a party at Courtneys house. I was way off.