Happy Birthday!

For the past two weeks my aunt and I have been secretly planning a surprise birthday fiesta for my mom and dad. Dad turned 60 on Sept. 11 and Mom turns 50 this week. Since they were both big birthdays we thought it'd be nice to help them celebrate with 65 of their closest friends and family. It was sooo hard to fib and fib and fib! I'm a terrible liar so the past several weeks have been stressful for me bc I was trying to keep my stories straight and buy supplies and hide them (since my mom is at my house several times a week babysitting while I go to work). It all worked out, though, and almost everyone that was invited showed up! (Despite rain all day.)

I chose a fiesta theme, and since the lady we were hoping could make all of our food wasn't available, I volunteered to do it myself. I tried to handle the bulk of it since that's just my nature to try not to burden anyone, in this case, my aunt. I ended up making 140 enchiladas (lol)-half beef & cheese/half chicken sour cream, two sweet corn cakes, salsa, guacamole, and homemade vanilla ice cream. Aunt April did a huge pan of Spanish rice and two cheese dips. Reasor's did a WONDERFUL job of making the strawberry-filled birthday cake; it was so moist and delicious! And, Kendall works with a Hispanic man at the golf course, so his wife made 4 dozen fresh-that-morning homemade tamales. So good! However, I do not want to eat enchiladas anytime soon. I was up until 2:30 in the morning making them. Now my house smells like an onion and beef. I had the windows open in the whole house all day today just trying to air it out. Yuck! I really do love, love, love cooking and baking, so really this just gave me an excuse to do what I love for people I love with all my heart.



Mom and Dad were both so surprised so everything went off perfectly. Especially when my mom realized that the reason we weren't answering our cell phones all day was bc we were setting things up, not bc we were lying in a ditch due to the wet roadways and rain. (Which is what she thought! My poor brother was in charge of getting mom and dad together and out of the house at the same time to head to the party and he tells me she was literally freaking out thinking we were in a car crash.)



Below: "Surprise!!!!"






Below: Nothing more fun than making grown adults (and a few kids) do paper towels-between-the-legs relays. Sooooo funny!

Below: The delicious white cake with strawberry filling and whipped icing from Reasor's. Delicious! I'm totally going back there for my next cake.

Below: And, naturally, Bee had to help blow out the candles.

Below: Here is the stack of invitations I made. It literally took me about 10 minutes to come up with them once I found the picture of this Mexican man and his lady love on the Internet. I had bright lime green envelopes left over from my wedding -- I knew I'd find something to use them for eventually -- so the idea of bright colors and a Mexican couple became the theme! They were my inspiration bc I thought they were cute and funny. I put four on a page, then the information on the back. I then went to Kinkos and had them printed on white speckled paper, then ripped them instead of cutting with scissors, then burned the edges. The goal was to make it look like an old photograph. I was pleased with how they turned out. I think burning edges of stuff will be my new "thing." Kinda fun! I loved this little Mexican couple so much I ended up using them throughout the party for the centerpieces and gift bags.