Dan's Surprise 30th Birthday/ Retirement Party!

I have been planning a surprise party for Dan for about a month and now I can finally blog about! His Las Vegas-themed party was on Saturday night! We had about 50 people attend; friends from the fire department, family members, friends from his Pfizer job! It's been pretty time consuming and especially hard with one car for the two of us, and I've been avoiding blogging, I guess--one less outlet I could have spilled the beans or something- I don't know.

This was so fun to plan! On the other hand, I started to feel bad lying to Dan. About three weeks prior, I told him I had been invited to a scrap-booking party hosted by a co-worker. He helped me send pictures to Sam's Club to have printed for that day and everything. That same co-worker's kid got really sick about a week before the party and ended up in the hospital, thus canceling the scrap-booking party. I had made the mistake of telling Dan--so I needed a new alibi! So that day, he thought I was out with a friend first shopping, then to a movie then the grocery store! Finally, as the guests were arriving at the house I've really spent the entire afternoon decorating, I called him to have him "meet me" at his Dad's house with his Dad's van we'd been borrowing. (He was also counting on us dropping off the car later after I got home.) At first he seemed a bit upset with me that I didn't call him back after he had tried calling 6 times! He agreed to bring over the van. He pulled into his Dad's driveway, expected to see me in my car waiting to add him as a passenger in my car. Instead, he pulled in to see 50 cars parked everywhere! He slowly parked, walked up to the front door, and then rang the door-bell ;) after he heard us all laugh, he let himself in........

SURPRISE!!!!!!!



These are a few before shots before the guests arrived.





Dan's cousins came!



PARTY TIME!





Michelle made these fabulous poker chip cupcakes for the party! She spent a ton of time on them and they were such a great hit! Aren't they cute?





Fire fighter's wives enjoying some fresh strawberry daiquiris that Frank is getting to be an expert at making!









This little guy just wanted one of those balloons down from the ceiling and he finally got it.



Michaela and Zach enjoying time together!



PALS!




My only regret is that I didn't take more pictures of the guests! What a fun night. It truly was a total shock to Dan! I can't believe I pulled it off! A huge thank you to Scott for plowing the snow, Michelle for the cupcakes, and Frank for helping collect RSVP's (and those now famous daiquiris!)