Surprise!

At last I'm posting about this! It's been the ONLY thing on my mind for the past month. Right after it happened I was all fired up about it ready to post pics, but then I was waiting for Steff to talk about it since it was her party. :) Then I sort of lost steam. Plus I've had my mom here all week, and it just didn't seem very polite to sit and blog when I could be hanging out with her... it's so rare that I get a whole week alone with her. (relatively alone that is. ;) it was GREAT... but more on that later.)

Yes, I planned the surprise party to end all surprise parties! Or so Stephanie says. :) Dana and Jess help A LOT, so major props to them! :) It's been in the works for over a month and it was all I could do not to spill the beans. I talk to Steff about EVERYTHING .... I so wanted to ask for party planning tips. :) She's the resident party planner.

There were so many layers of fun to surprising her....it was the best part! We were pros and just played it cool the whole time. Dana had even set up a decoy engagement, offering to babysit so Steff and Ted could have a date night! Ha. Ted made an excuse to swing by here (not out of the ordinary) and then SURPRISE!!

We had a Survivor theme since that is her and Ted's favorite show. Dana made the perfect cake - tiki hut and a beach theme...even a little campfire. It was super cute!!
I was able to do some nice island decorating to set the mood.

Like my lamp turned palm tree?? :)

She was TOTALLY surprised, thanks to Ted stalling and keeping the secret. Props to Ted too. :) She came in totally blown away, and her face was so worth it. The whole time I was planning and stressing, the thing that kept me going was the look I knew would be on her face when she walked through the door totally clueless and how happy she would be that we'd thrown her a party. She did not disappoint. :)

Ummm... what???

No way!!

Wow!!

It was a great night - we split into "tribes" and had challenges... there was no voting off, just a winning tribe.

Making and naming our tribal flags.


GiTaJeFaDa and the Woo Hoo tribes!

Faydra doing the water relay.


Haha!! :) We won this challenge! Go Steff!

Limbo!

Dana was our winner for the GiTaJeFaDa tribe - they went on to win!

Everyone brought tropical food for a potluck. It was all delicious.

Digging into the cake!

There were a few of us that partied into the night, and by partied I mean talked. ;) We're so exciting. But it was fun to bond more with girls I hadn't seen in awhile.

Most of the crew - there were a lot of people who couldn't come. But Steff felt special that all her important people in her life had been invited. :)

The only downer was that the scratchy throat I had Friday got progressively worse the whole night until I was laid out on the couch with a blanket by the end of the night. I wasn't even able to go to church in the morning. I felt horrible, but thankfully it passed quickly.

So that was the party! For more pictures, go to Dana's blog and to hear Steff's take on the surprise, click here. :)

Oh, you might notice some construction going on in the background. That's where my big strong hubby knocked out the wall between the play room and dining room! He's putting and arched opening and columns there, mirroring the other wall of the dining room in the the living. It's coming along splendidly! He's so wonderfully handy... and virile. (my new favorite word to describe my hubby, borrowed largly from the Pioneer Woman) Virile. Yes, my husband is that. Is it getting hot in here? It's only me? Alright, carry on.