Birthday birthday!

when making our plans for my birthday, tim was going to be working on the 12th and my dad was busy at a conference so my mom had suggested that we all go out for dinner at White Spot on the friday before.  it sounded good to me.  i had a staff meeting in cloverdale that afternoon so tim took the kids to white rock and i was going to meet them and my parents and aim for a 5:30pm dinner.  i was a little stressed at the prospect of avery being up so late - she normally went to bed around 6 - 6:30pm.  but i love doing anything birthday-related so i was happy to have this plan.

i showed up to my parents' place and no one seemed ready to go.  i was trying to rush everyone out the door but my mom said that even though matt was working, katie could make it and they were picking her up.  i was thinking, "oh come on!  we need to hurry up and get there so that we can get home!"  haha.  so  i decided that we just needed to get going so i started getting the kids in the car and told my parents that we'd meet them at the restaurant.  all of a sudden, my mom is like, "oh, dad will go with tim.  you can come with me to pick up katie."  i thought this was a strange plan - i walked out to the truck where tim was and i was said, "what is going on?  why am i going with my mom to pick up katie?"  tim says, "oh, is that what's happening?"  then he kind of gave me this sheepish smile.  all of a sudden, i knew something was up so i decided to stop asking questions and just roll with it.  i gave tim and my dad strict instructions to order ben a pirate pack at the restaurant as soon as they sat down so he could eat quickly.

off we went to matt and katie's place.  we parked in front and my mom says, "you knock on the door - i forgot my phone in the car."  so i think, "maybe something is going to happen here."  katie opens the door.  no one else there.  hmm...  but she says that she's not ready so my mom and i wait on the couch.  i'm feeling stressed that i'm not with my kids.  my mom gets a text and tells me, "they haven't even been seated yet."  oh my goodness!  now, i'm feeling really stressed and wishing i was there with them and wondering where the heck is katie!  poor katie - when she came back down and said she was ready, she could tell i was antsy, i'm sure.  we're driving out of the townhouse complex and katie says, "oh, could we just stop by the clubhouse for a minute?  there's a baby clothes sale going on.  i'm sorry, rebecca!  but maybe you can find something there."  i'm thinking that this sounds strange and i'm pretty sure that there's no clothes sale.  we go walking up the stairs and i'm so confused as to what we're doing there. i just want to get to white spot.  

we walk in and everyone yells surprise!  ( i guess you probably saw that part coming in this story, right?)  i was stunned.  i couldn't believe how many people were there.  it was so crazy.  there were balloons everywhere and ben came running to me.  i was so happy to see that they weren't still waiting in the lobby at white spot!  haha.  it was pretty great to get a surprise party - so thoughtful on my mom's part and matt and katie did a lot of work for it too.  and then of course, katie had to take the brunt of my frustration in being the person to be picked up!  tim was very nervous for everyone - he was sure i would be showing up in a very bad mood because he knew i would have been wanting to hurry up and get to white spot.  ahh, tim...you know me so well.  too funny.  it was a wonderful evening. 

my parents took the kids back to their place around 8:30pm so that tim and i could stay longer but everyone with kids were in the same boat so we had a smaller group to hang out with - all the kidless people!  but it was great to sit down and have better conversations than we could in the big group.  and of course, i just wanted to re-hash the whole surprise!  :)  we got back to my parent's place around 10:30pm and re-hashed it all again.  it's really one of the best parts!  i remember talking about my mom's 40th surprise party for so long afterwards... now i get to talk about mine!  so good.  

my mom had the sweetest decorations - items from my childhood

there were 30 balloons each with a picture attached - one from every year of my life.
i'd seen this all over pinterest and had thought to myself that i wished someone would do that for me.  it was so thoughtful - i loved walking around the room and seeing yet another new photo hanging.  :)

Matt rocked the BBQ for us.

There was so much amazing food but I barely ate anything -
I was too busy chatting with everyone and just being overwhelmed!  ;)

my sweet family - i'm one lucky 30 year old

After months of telling Ben that there are NOT bouncy castles at ALL birthday parties...there WAS one at MY party!  haha.  all the kids loved it - ben just ate candy all night and bounced. 

although i thought the bouncy castle was genius...i think it was other people (like Heidi) who had to look after my kid!  thank you to all those friends!  

Great friends - love this photo.
Avery was her regular self despite the super late bedtime - a quiet little dolly!

sisters in law - katie did such a wonderful job at making this party work -
right down to the "could we just stop at the baby clothes sale at the clubhouse before dinner?"

my helper

i loved having ben and avery there at my birthday party -
one of the big reasons that makes 30 so okay.  :)