Surprise!

I'm not easy to surprise because I ask many questions and makes lots of plans. But Greg (along with tight lips from my family, his family and our close friends ...) did it. He surprised me with a 30th birthday party on Mother's Day.

This video nearly brought me to tears ...


Add to that a sweet note from Mom in a book she gave me, 30 memories my long-time friend Katie wrote on pink notecards, the note my sister sent from New Zealand that Mom passed along, 30 things my mother-in-law wrote on paper butterflies in a beautiful wooden keepsake butterfly box ... and, really, I can't believe I didn't have tears of being so thankful for my life streaming down my face.

Oh, and remember my list of 30 songs on the soundtrack to my life? Greg put them on CD, so I really do have a soundtrack to celebrate this season of my life!

Let me back up ... I had said good-bye to Mom, Dad and Poppy after breakfast this morning at Cracker Barrel. (They were in town for Cate's birthday party ... which is a whole other post!) We went on to church and then planned to go to my in-laws' house to celebrate Mother's Day. When we pulled in the driveway, I realized there were more cars than I was expecting. Then I noticed among the cars was Mom's Honda CRV. They hadn't left!

And NOBODY let on all weekend what was going on. Even after Katie and Brad left Cate's party earlier than I expected and I texted Katie to tell her how sad I was that we didn't get to spend much time together. We made plans to see each other today ... I just didn't realize it would be at my own party! In addition to my family, Greg's family and Katie, who is like family, a few other friends came.

I found out later that Greg had been planning this for MONTHS! He'd been coordinating with my mom, his mom and my two best friends. Apparently, it started out as lunch after church but became something different when he realized it was Mother's Day too and my family was going to be in town for Cate's party.

So, yeah, look at my hat! Mom brought it for me, so I made her pose for a picture!

This is Jaclyn and I, and none of our kids are in this picture, but, actually, Cate is sitting on my lap, eating cake. Holly decided it needed to be just us moms in this shot! Oh, and, yes, the cake ...

More pictures are on Facebook. And, just as a reminder, even if you don't belong to Facebook, you can look at these albums I link.