Flowers & Fun Surprises

My mom is wrapping up her last week of teaching ever!  She's been a Speech Therapist in the schools for nearly 30 years.  My Dad and my siblings have been working hard for MONTHS to pull of a big surprise party for her.  We invited her to a Mother's Day dinner on Friday night and she knew all of her kids would be there.  We just surprised her by inviting 60 other couple friends to come along.  It was so fun to see everyone and we were THRILLED to surprise her with the party.  She really was SHOCKED which made us feel great.

The party was at a local favorite restaurant and we each divided up jobs.  I took on invitations, flowers and paper party products.  It all came together nicely :)

FLOWERS:
I've been collecting tall mason jars for the past few months from my favorite Ragu sauce because we love to drink out of them and I thought they'd be perfect vases for the party.  I ended up with 11 so I made 11 little bouquets.  Aren't they gorgeous!?!

Supplies:
3 different pink ribbons
3 dozen pink roses in three different shades
Light pink carnations
Baby's breath
greenery and curly sticks from my back yard
11 tall mason jars
scissors

I put the roses in first, added in the carnations and baby's breath and then filled in all the jars with sticks and greenery.  They were quick to assemble and I was so pleased with how the bouquets came together.

Paper Party Products!
I really enjoyed collecting supplies for my mom's party.  We used her favorite colors as our theme and I had no problem finding beautiful things to use.
table runner - TJ Maxx
banner - Target
plates & polka-dot napkins - Meijer
floral, striped and pink napkins - Wal-Mart

Her Invitation was from etsy and I was so happy with it!!
It was very affordable from NiceStudioForYou and so gorgeous.
The shop was great to work with, made changes quickly and I was thrilled with the invite.

We put together a fun RETIRE (rest, eat, travel, indulge, relax and enjoy) themed gift card basket.

My sister made some delicious desserts.  Aren't they all so pretty??
I got a dessert sampler plate :)

My siblings anxiously awaiting the arrival of my parents.  We were trying to make sure everyone was seated and hidden so that she didn't suspect anything.

She was SO SURPRISED!!  Mission accomplished :)

The girls:

My siblings:

My dad said lots of nice things about mom and then asked her boss and some coworkers to say a few words.  It was a really nice way to honor my mom.

My mom teased when she got the microphone and said, "My name is Nancy and I'm running for Sheriff."  It was pretty funny because my dad has run three big campaigns for sheriff over the years and many of their same friends were at all of his campaign functions.

My in laws were there to help us celebrate.

My dad and his siblings were there minus one sister.

We appreciated all of the help from family and friends to pull this off.  We were also a tiny bit relieved to have the big surprise past us because it has been a little stressful to lie for months about this party :)