Since we were on vacation on August 5th - Mom's birthday - we didn't do much to celebrate other than letting her choose the restaurant we ate at that night. So her daughters we brilliant and threw her a family surprise party today! It took us like 4 hours all together to set it up. We went shopping in the morning for supplies, tried to put up as many decorations as we could before we had to go to work [we have a lot of orders to fill because of our extended absence, but it was definitely worth it! - working on a Saturday is a small price to pay for such an amazing trip!] and we were sneaky little actresses which allowed us to leave work just a little early to get everything set up before the padres got home.

We had a lovely summer theme of white and yellow, and got her favorite chocolate cake from Maglebys. We also got a strawberry piñata to hang in the backyard, which broke and Dad then bravely became the tree it hung on. When she got home, she actually was surprised thanks to my dad's subtle sluethfulness! There were balloons covering the floor, streamers dangling from the ceiling, and fresh flowers on the table. Not to mention we cleaned the house! So I think/hope she was happy that we did all of it.

It was neat to give her a fun surprise amid all this crazy catching up she's doing at work. And everyone had a blast at the "party". I took pictures [of course], so I have to share some of them [of course]. Take a peek!