Surprise!!!

SURPRISE!!!!!!!! And surprised is right. I can be so sneaky sometimes (in a good way, of course)! :) Since it was a 'milestone' birthday for Gabe, I knew I wanted to do something special for him. At first though, I couldn't make up my mind... did I want to throw him a surprise party, take him on a trip, or buy him something big that he really wanted?? I weighed my options heavily and finally decided on the party. I thought that if I could get a lot of family and friends here (especially ones that he hadn't seen in a while) then that would make his day!

So, one day when he was napping I snuck his phone away and stole phone numbers. I then sent a text to everyone explaining what I was doing and asked for their email address so that I could send them an evite. Shockingly, I heard back from everyone pretty quickly and I sent the evite out...there was no turning back now!! Hahahaha!

The planning part was pretty easy. And I couldn't really talk about the party in front of the kids, I was afraid that they would spill the beans. So they were in the dark too for a while. :)
And this part was weird...every time someone would call me about the party or have a question, Gabe would never be around! I thought..."this is too easy!"

I was having the party at our house, so to get him out of the house, the kids gave him a trip to the golf course with two of his friends for the day. This was the only thing that I could think of that 1. would get him out of the house for a few hours and 2. he wouldn't get too suspicious of.

The morning of the party, Gabe left for the golf course and I left to drop of presents for my niece and nephew's party (yes, it was their birthday too), run to party city to pick up balloons and a couple of last minute things, run to our favorite mexican restaurant for salsa, chips, and beans, and run to Wal-Mart for beer, snack trays, etc. Then I had to hurry home to set up, decorate, get dressed and greet guests!! Thank God for my in-laws and my Mom. They were a huge help!

Everyone else started arriving at 4pm. I was expecting Gabe to arrive no later than 5pm, but you can't really put a start and finish time on a good game of golf! Ha! I think he finally got there around 6! Better late than never!! :)

We all hid in the house and of course anxiously awaited for him to walk in the door. He was genuinely surprised. He said he had no idea about the party. Of course, when he saw the cars, he started getting a little suspicious because he started recognizing some of them. But all in all, he had no clue!! I was so proud!! :)

So then the party really began. My father-in-law and Gabe's Uncle Tony cooked up some delicious beef fajitas and sausage. And actually I don't even know how to describe them...delicious is an understatement!! It was sooo good!

We all ate and had a good time. The party seemed to be a success. I know Gabe and I had a good time. And the turn out was a lot more than I first expected (since a lot of them lived out of town, I didn't think they would come). The party flew by...so much so that we stayed up all night! We are crazy, I know. But like the song says, "The road goes on forever, but the party never ends!" We had a lot, a lot of laughs. Gabe and I were still talking about things from the party all week long. I told him, "I guess it was a good party since we are still talking about it 5 days later!" Lol!

I love you Honey. I hope you enjoyed your Surprise 30th Birthday Party!!!

Greeting the guests.

Hugging his Dad.

Awww, my sweet hubby was surprised! Nice job, Christy!

Ready to party!

The Wittschen's. Kevin helped me get Gabe out of the house! Thanks Kevin!

Jayne, me & Tabitha.

Happy Birthday Gabe!!

Delicious cake from Estelle. MMMMM, so good!

Floyd made the trip from Corpus too. I love it when these two get together and sing!

Someone wasn't ready to go to bed yet.

And of course, when friends & alcohol get together, then the competition starts. Todd went first.

Then it was Gabe's turn... yeah, he ripped out 30!

Gabe, Floyd, & Todd.




Thank you to everyone that came! Gabe really appreciated it and had a real good time.

And thank you Abel & Esmi for all that you did. The food was delicious.

Thank you to Uncle Tony & Aunt Grace too!

Love you guys!