My Birthday Surprise!

Wow....what a great Birthday I had this year! Sort of my "Golden Birthday" since I was born in '56 and turned 56 with this birthday :-) My family decided to celebrate with a surprise wine tasting (Wines for Humanity), with my closest family and friends. The party was spear-headed by my oldest daughter Libby, who came up with this fun idea! She did all the organizing and work behind the scenes leading up to the party, and then took me out for a "girls' day" with lunch, shopping and a manicure, while my husband and 2 sons cleaned and set up for the party. Sorely missed on this day was my daughter Kristen, who had to stay back in Chicago and study for her grad school final exams: missed her so much, but she was there in spirit!

 Libby told me that we would be celebrating with a surprise with my husband and sons later, so I was thinking reservations had been made for a fun dinner out somewhere. When we arrived close to home, Libby placed a blindfold over my eyes explaining that part of the surprise was something that the guys had done in the yard (landscaping? new plantings, new tree?). I'm pretty gullible and follow directions very well, so I really had no idea when I walked into the house and was greeted by family and friends!

 SURPRISE!

Here we are at the wine-tasting, pre-pour, going over our instructions:

Catering was done by my son Kenny's girlfriend Cassie's aunt, a trained chef. She did such a lovely job, and paired the food offerings with the different wines served. Amazing!

Group photo: what a lovely bunch!

Front row: Barb, Margaret, me, & Libby

Back row: Stacy, Janet, Janice, Cassie, Karen, Angie, Cindy & Kathy.

I really felt like a queen for the day! Thanks so much to my guests for taking the time out of their busy schedules to help me celebrate, and for the lovely gifts that were the icing on the cake.

And a special thank you to my family: no words to say how much you all mean to me!