I blinked and we’re back to Monday again!! We were in Oshkosh for a total of 38 hours but we managed to pull off a pretty fun and wonderful surprise party for my Mother-in-Law! The planning for this has been going on for a few months- I mean, TONS of text messages, whispers and emails later and it was finally time to celebrate!!

We all were not sure if this was going to be a total surprise or if my MIL had some idea of what was going on.. We arrived in Oshkosh Friday night around 9 pm (for a “golf tournament” for the hubs) and went about our business as normal; watching Gymnastic try-outs for the US Olympic team and gossiping!  *Side note, both my SIL’s are gymnasts and it’s always entertaining to hear their opinions when watching!*

We started off Saturday morning with a trip to the Farmer’s Market before my MIL was off to work for a few hours that day!

The flowers there were amazing!! So colorful and seriously… they were like $7 for a HUGE bouquet.. I wish ours was like that- I love having fresh flowers on our kitchen table every week!!  My (soon to be,  wink wink) SIL was headed down to the same area for some flowers for the big Surprise Party so we definitely had to make sure to dart one another 🙂

The hubs and his Mama enjoyed some street tacos!

We didn’t take any selfies at the Farmer’s Market (you know I love those!!) so after driving around the area for who knows what reason, we pulled over for a fun one by the Waters and took a few selfies 🙂

Fun fact: the hubs and I were really interested in having our wedding in Oshkosh at the Waters because it’s beautiful… but we really wanted it all outside by the water with the beautiful plantation style building as the backdrop and that wasn’t allowed 😦 Bummer!

Am I right?? How beautiful would that have been?!

Now onto the party…. because.. well duh!

After my MIL went to work, we all started immediately with figuring out what needed to be done!! We hit up the grocery store for last minute appetizers (veggie and fruit tray, cheese tray and some Rum for mojitos!).  After putting all of those together, we loaded up the cars with just about everything and headed over to the party spot (my MIL’s sisters!).  After setting everything up, we just needed to pick up the finishing touches- balloons, cake and cheese dip of course! 🙂

Good thing we had just enough room for my SIL to sit in the back surrounded by balloons! 🙂

We decided on a Kate Spadesque (is that a word??) theme and immediately went for black and white striped table clothes with “pops” of color!!  We loved the pink color and thought it was the perfect touch!  We had Sangria and Mojitos for drinks 🙂 We stuck with the Yellowtail Sangria versus making one!

Along with cake, cake pops and chocolate covered pretzels for some desserts! And we can’t forget the candy (almond joys and reese’s) which just so happen to be my MIL’s favorite!

After we were done setting up, we headed back to my in-laws house so everyone could shower and do last minute things before becoming scarce!!  Since the hubs was “golfing” he needed to be gone when my MIL was done working.  D and C (my SILs) and I picked up my MIL from work around 3 and we were set to start getting our “plan” into action!

We told her we were headed to dinner for her birthday and expected her to change into something nice!  Since we didn’t give her much details, she didn’t think much to change (she was already in a nice black shirt and jeans!). We tried to keep things as natural as possible for the next hour… We really didn’t do much… we chatted about her day and work and all those fun things. I got ready and we waited for her to jump up and start getting ready herself!  After a few changes, we were all ready to go!! *We said we needed to stop by my MIL’s sister’s (Nanny) house to pick up the hubs.  He was “visiting” his cousin who is in town from NY after golf!*

Once we got to Nanny’s house, the garage and front door were closed and my MIL made the comment “Great, there’s no one here!” The girls opened the garage at which point, everyone yelled “Surprise!” And this was her reaction…

She was totally surprised!  Thanks to Nanny for those pictures above and the next few 🙂  Also.. earth to Kristi.. MOVE OUT OF THE PICTURE!!! Next time folks.. next time!

And now i’ll just leave you with a load of pictures… per usual 🙂 Let’s be real.. that’s the best part of these blog posts!!

Pictures above courtesy of Nanny 🙂

My Sister and Niece were sweet enough to stop by and visit for a little bit! I’m pretty sure I know the reason why S came along… 🙂 Hint: the little puppy in the picture!

The party was a success and i’m so glad we were able to celebrate my MIL for her birthday! She definitely deserved to have a day all about her and I’m glad we could celebrate with her friends and family!

Hope you all had as good a weekend as we did!

Kristi