Suprise!

This past weekend, we threw a surprise 60th birthday party for Jody's mom out in the South suburbs. We have been planning this party for months with Bonnie and Roger and Jason and Heather, and it went off without a hitch. It was a fantastic evening with friends and family and Jody's mom was totally surprised by it all.

The evening started with a limo showing up to Jody's mom place and all of her close friends from the North Shore waiting for her inside the limo with champagne. They didn't tell her where they were headed, but she figured out that they were definitely meeting up with Bonnie and Roger. At that point, she had no clue that the "kids" were in on it too.

When they showed up at Francesca's, she got her second surprise when she came into the room and all of us were in there. The party was a sockhop theme since she was a child of the '50s. So there were pictures of '50s icons all over, old photos of the life and times of Jody's mom, adorable centerpieces that Bonnie worked on, and a bunch of candies from the '50s all over the tables.

We had a yummy Italian dinner and everyone gave speeches toasting Jody's mom. It was really sweet to hear all the ways she's touched everyone's lives in different ways. Bonnie also put together a mix CD filled with '50s music and the group loved the tunes. After dinner, speeches, cake, and, of course, plenty of booze, the whole crowd busted out into a dance party, complete with a conga line. It was quite a scene (particularly entertaining for me, the lone sober one) and plenty of fun. I'm pretty sure our party outlasted everyone else in the restaurant, give or take a few people left at the bar.

We had so much fun planning it and it was awesome to see how happy it made Jody's mom. Thanks to everyone who helped coordinate, plan and celebrate! We had a blast.