{"id":4009,"date":"2010-07-23T23:40:49","date_gmt":"2010-07-24T03:40:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gloriahansen.com\/weblog\/?p=4009"},"modified":"2010-07-23T23:43:05","modified_gmt":"2010-07-24T03:43:05","slug":"moms-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gloriahansen.com\/weblog\/?p=4009","title":{"rendered":"Moms’ party"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am so far behind with my blog posts!\u00a0 My best intentions were to add more images from my trip to the Four Corners, as I’ve some nice images; images from the 4th of July (that’s now long enough over with to nix); add images from a new quilt that I’m now blocking for an exhibit that will be in Botswana; do a short video on a project I hope to have online — that is, some free digital video lessons; and post some butterfly pictures.\u00a0 Instead, I’m adding a post about the recent surprise party we gave my mom for her 75th birthday.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

So, last weekend was mom’s 75th surprise birthday party given by her family.\u00a0 It was a perfect surprise.\u00a0 She had absolutely no idea! So, how did I keep the surprise?\u00a0 By putting the party in plain sight!\u00a0 The party was Saturday night, but one day over pizza I suggested we have a party for her on Sunday, the 18th, the day of her actual birthday.\u00a0 At first she seemed disappointed in that I suspect she wanted a surprise party.\u00a0 Once she warmed to the idea, she took out a piece of paper and started making a list of what we needed to buy!\u00a0 I had to stop her from buying food for the party, causally saying that my sister and I would take care of it (all while my heart was racing).<\/p>\n

She asked if I ordered the cake, and I told her I did.\u00a0 When she offered to come over to help get her birthday cake on Saturday, I jumped on it.\u00a0 She actually came with me to pick it up along with other stuff. Little did she know that the party was that day. Rich and I could hardly look at each other for fear that we’d start laughing.<\/p>\n

I practically wrote a script for everyone to follow.\u00a0 When we got home from getting the cake, Rich was to moan he was hungry.\u00a0 I was to suggest pizza.\u00a0 He was to moan he didn’t want pizza.\u00a0 I was to say I wasn’t that hungry.\u00a0 We were to look at each other, somewhat exasperated.\u00a0 And, just as I thought, mom took the bait.\u00a0 She suggested we go to the restaurant in downtown Hightstown where we could split a burger and Rich could get what he wanted.\u00a0 Bingo.\u00a0 The party was at that restaurant!\u00a0 I said, “Okay.\u00a0 We can go there.”<\/p>\n

Everyone knew to park in the back.\u00a0 As Rich kept mom’s attention, I sent a text to my sister alerting her that we were in the parking lot.\u00a0\u00a0 We generally sit outside.\u00a0 However, Rich knew what to say.\u00a0 “It’s too hot to sit outside, let’s sit inside.”\u00a0 Next, when inside we generally sit on the side of the bar so that we can watch the Giants or Yankees.\u00a0 However, the waitresses were ready.\u00a0 As we started to walk in that direction, our waitress stopped us.\u00a0 “We’re cleaning that side, so let me sit you on the other side.”\u00a0 Everyone was hiding behind a menu.\u00a0 As we walked over, I somewhat blocked mom.\u00a0 Then I stepped to her side, the menus dropped, and everyone shouted “Surprise.”<\/p>\n

\"\"

One surprised mama!<\/p><\/div>\n

Mom’s eyes widened, her mouth dropped open, and nearly fell backwards.\u00a0 It took her a couple minutes to realize what was going on.\u00a0 My brother and sister-in-law from California, mom’s last surviving brother and his wife, and two of mom’s nieces and my cousin’s husband were there.\u00a0 It was great!<\/p>\n

\"\"

Mom and my Uncle Bill, mom's brother.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

Mom, her four children, three grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. Dad was there in spirit. <\/p><\/div>\n

Mom said to me that all she wanted for her birthday was a picture of her family.\u00a0 With tripod ready, my sister and I took plenty of photos. Between both of us, mom has a lot of photos from the party at the restaurant and the cake party at mom’s house.\u00a0 I printed one of the group pictures, framed it, and took it over on Sunday, her actual birthday.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Mom’s present was an iPad.\u00a0 Unfortunately, all of the Apple stores in this area were out of stock.\u00a0 Although I pleaded with the Apple rep when ordered it on the 5th, it wasn’t shipped until the 20th (yes, she has it now and is in love with it).\u00a0 I got her a book which was signed with everyone’s name.\u00a0 I wrapped it with a puzzle book on top.\u00a0 After she looked at the puzzle book, she assumed the next book was another puzzle book.\u00a0 We all watched and waited for her to realize what her present was.\u00a0 She looked at me.\u00a0 “A ipod?”\u00a0 No.\u00a0 “It doesn’t say ipod.”\u00a0 She looked at it again, then looked up.\u00a0 “An iPad?\u00a0 You got me an iPad?”\u00a0 Yes!\u00a0 A great gift, if I do say so myself!!\u00a0 It was a very happy birthday for mom!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am so far behind with my blog posts!\u00a0 My best intentions were to add more images from my trip to the Four Corners, as I’ve some nice images; images from the 4th of July (that’s now long enough over with to nix); add images from a new quilt that I’m now blocking for an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misc-personal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gloriahansen.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gloriahansen.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gloriahansen.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gloriahansen.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gloriahansen.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4009"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.gloriahansen.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4031,"href":"https:\/\/www.gloriahansen.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4009\/revisions\/4031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gloriahansen.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gloriahansen.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gloriahansen.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}