Mom's retirement

I just copy and pasted this from my blog, but figured it would be good to have on here as well!  Love you all like crazy!

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For weeks I worked on planning a surprise party to celebrate my mom's retirement.  And then we found out that Ethan's promotion was going to be the same week as her retirement... it was a bit crazy, but it all worked out.

The invitations went out and the RSVPs came in.  We expected a crowd somewhere around 70 people! I used celebrations.com because I could design my own invitation and they sent it out with all the ease of an evite rsvp.  It was great. I highly recommend using them!  This was the invitation I designed.

We were going to be feeding the masses a light dinner and dessert, so I had to come up with a fun way to decorate the tables.  I wanted to honor all my mom's talents, so I decided to do each table with a different theme.  The themes were based on some things that she'll have more time for now that she's retired. So there was a mission table... it had a globe, a Book of Mormon, and this banner...

A travel table, which included this sign and a picture of their new trailer...

Sadly, I had no time at all for taking pictures of the tables and the event... but there was also a quilting table, a knitting table, a painting table, and a couple others I can't remember right now. (I can't believe I can't remember it occupied my thoughts for so long!!!)

The guests started arriving and I was so excited to see so many people that loved my mom and that I knew she loved.

And then we waited... my dad texted and said they were leaving their house, so we expected them and everyone gathered together and waited with baited breath... but they took forever to get there... then they finally arrived and we knew we had succeeded in the surprise!

I had so much help with the food! Richy came and helped prep food and my sister in law Brindy (who is my SIL on Ethan's side, not mine!) came and saved the day as well.  She and Sara (another Woody SIL) provided most of the serving dishes.  The dinner table looked fabulous!

And then my fabulous sister-in-law Heather took the dessert table on herself.  It was beyond words amazing.  Everyone was in awe of her skills (as was I) she is super woman.

Once everyone had food and had a chance to visit for a minute, I let everyone know that the cards on their tables were for them to write on and we would read them throughout the night... it was funny, but SO much funnier when my brother, Sean, took over reading them.  He made the night so much fun.

We had a little program that was really neat to honor her.  I rewrote some words to Sunrise, Sunset and played and sang it.  It was silly.  Next Richy's two oldest kids performed a skit.  I had planned several games, one was a trivia face off game, another was a list of things she either did or didn't do and people had to race to a buzzer when I got to one that was real, and the last was a timeline game where people had to put things in chronological order (when she started different crafting and when she lived in different places).  My dad talked about what a neat lady my mom is and how blessed he is to have her and Sean read two really beautiful poems that he wrote for my mom and my dad.  And we ended the night by singing You Are My Sunshine to her, like she used to always sing to us.

It was a super fun night and such a special way to celebrate what a wonderful life she's lived so far.  We're excited for all the great things she gets to do now that she's retired!

I can not believe that I only have 3 measly pictures from the whole night, all these other are files from my computer in prep for the party.  Heather and Kari send me what you have when you can!!!