Mimi's Surprise 65th Birthday Party

We had Mimi's surprise 65th birthday party at our house yesterday.  Collin was excited because Aunt Nancy came to town as a surprise for the party.  We picked her up Friday night and she spent the night at our house which was a treat.  She does not usually spend the night when she is in town because Mimi wants her to be at her house as much as possible. 


We were tried from the week and knew Saturday would be a busy day so, Collin loved it when I said we were going to have movie night with Nancy.  He picked two movies to watch while Nancy laid on the couch with him.  I sat at the craft table to finish some scrapbook pages and watched the movie with them. 


The next morning, we cleaned the house, hung some decorations and got ready for the party.  We did go to Home Depot so Collin could build the monthly kid's workshop project.  It was a dry erase board which will come in handy.  On the way to pick up the cake, Nancy wrote math problems on the board and Collin happily worked the problem.  Hey, getting some math homework done on a Saturday.


The guest started to arrive around 12:30pm for the 1pm - 3pm party.  The plan was for my sister to pick up Mom to take her to my house so we could go out for a birthday lunch.  Lisa let me know when she was pulling onto our street.  Later, Mom told us she noticed the cars but knew it was a holiday weekend and did not think too much of it.  When they got to the door, the had to ring the doorbell because someone had accidentally locked the door.  It worked out because Chris just casually answered it.  They walked into the door and the grandkids popped out from behind the wall and said, "Happy Birthday!".  This is when Mimi realized that this was party and stood there to see who all was there.  When she saw Nancy, she screamed and her mouth dropped open.  She was really surprised!

I love this look!  She WAS surprised.

Precious picture of the sisters hugging.  I especially love Leah's face.  She was happy.

Here is where she is noticing who else was at the party.

Now, I knew Mimi had to know I was at the party because it was my house but I did not get to tell her "happy birthday" until about 20 minutes after she arrived.  I wanted her to get a chance to talk to everyone ... and she sure was not moving down the line very quickly.  Ha!


Pappi and Fernando made the food which was BBQ meats, potato salad, beans, Spanish rice, guacamole, pico de gallo and hot dogs and hamburgers for the kids (they were too busy to stop and eat).  Everyone said how good the food tasted.  An hour later, we lit the candles, wished Mimi a happy birthday and she blew out the candles so we could have cake.  Pappi wanted her to have a red velvet and a lemon with white icing cake together.  We could not find that AND worried about trying to store the cake until it was used so we had two separate cakes made.  They turned out great and were delicious! I am not usually a lemon fan but that cake was really moist and very flavorful.

Lemon cake with vanilla icing

Red velvet cake

In case Mimi forgot how old she was .. on Sept 5th.

Primping her hair and getting ready for pictures

Blowing out the candles

I guess it takes awhile to blow out two candles when you are 65

She did it!

Now, that's a happy birthday girl

We had about 30 people in the house at one time.  There was seating outside under the patio and then a few tables inside...plenty of room for people to sit a visit while eating.  The kids mainly played upstairs and were not too loud until they found Collin's drum set.  As long as the hall door was closed, the sound was not too bad.

Aunt Mary, Cousin Dawn and Mimi...next to Nancy

Let's eat

Mimi with more cousins

Kelly, Mimi and Yvonne

People look like they are having a great time

People started to leave a little after 3pm.  The main family stayed for a few hours to hang out and watch Mimi open her presents.  After cleaning up for about 2 hours, I was pooped...and then Collin was hungry for dinner.  Figures! 


Glad we could surprise Mimi for her birthday and she had fun.  Love you Mimi!