This post is long over-due, but better late than never! The hubs turned the dirty 30 in January and I threw a surprise birthday party for him. The theme was a beer bash. I had a lot of fun decorating and planning for the party, but I will say throwing a surprise party is so much more stressful! To add to the stress, it was right after traveling for the holidays and Jackson came down with the flu two days before the party (luckily he had a shot and symptoms were mild - just meant I could no longer take him to a friends for the babysitter and he had to stay at our house during the party!!!). He was a trooper and slept through all of the chaos!
Anywho, our dear friends Corey and Claire had planned a trip to visit the weekend before Mike's birthday. I thought that would be a perfect time to throw the party since they were already here. A few other special out of town guests were able to make the trek - the Barbaros from Fayetteville and the Furlongs from Charleston. This was such a surprise to Mike and meant so much that they came from so far! The rest of our party guests were from the Charlotte/Lake Norman area. We had a lot of dental school friends here and some of our new friends that we've made too. Corey and Drew went out with Mike for the day and had a boys day while Claire and I picked up cupcakes, made food, decorated and took care of Jackson. All of the guests were great and helped out as they arrived. The last few minutes were a little stressful trying to get the final details pulled together. I'm very grateful for everyone that walked in and started cooking, icing down beer, taking out my trash, putting my kid to bed, etc.... you were all fabulous!
Mike was truly surprised! He looked shocked as he entered and even turned a little red. :) He was very appreciative and talked for days about how awesome the party was and how he couldn't believe these people came to help celebrate. He said over and over how between the fun with the guys earlier and the party, that it was one of the best days of his life - He had such a fun time!
Thanks to Seantel for taking pictures (again, our camera was in TN - what a great time to leave it! ugh).
I reused the frame from Jackson's birthday and hung pictures of Mike from his childhood (thanks Jane for the pictures!) Below, I made the birthday banner which can also be reused.
I bought a small party pack from Etsy which included a few signs, the food labels, cupcake toppyers, and invitations. We had a variety of beers for our guests!
Miss Claire taking care of our sweet sick boy before the party started. He was a bit overwhelmed by all of the people and went down like a champ!
Callie and Jess helping with some last minute food prep!
Cupcakes, nuts, and tip jar for the birthday boy! The cupcakes were from a local bakery and flavors included "Guinness Stout" which was a chocolate stout cake with Bailey's buttercream to go with the beer theme, and the second was "Chubby Hubby" and had white base, ganache filling, peanut butter frosting and crumbled pretzels.
The spread consisted of bar type food: wings; salsa, queso, and guacamole; buffalo chicken dip and chips; spinach and artichoke dip; beer cheese with soft pretzels, carrots, and apples; taco cups; and pigs in a blanket. There was a lot of food at first, but the left overs came in nice later in the evening!
I repurposed this wreath that I had made for Jackson's birthday. I added the beer clip art and made a little banner out of left over cupcake toppers.
Our good friends Scott and Kelly were kind enough to give me some of their great cigars (I hear they are great, anyway - never tried one myself!). Unfortunately, they were unable to attend the party because their child was sick but their contribution sure was appreciated!
The party favors were beer glasses filled with peanuts. The sign on the wall is a large copy of the invite and I found some free printable thank you tags that matched well on pinterest.
This was our photo booth set up - thank you Mark and Stephanie for the fabulous job decorating! And thanks to Corey and Claire for the bag of props.
The birthday boy - surprise!
Still trying to figure out what is going on!
Ryan and Seantel.
Happy birthday!
Mark and Steph.
Drew, Corey, and Ryan - it had been a while since some of these guys had seen each other and they really seemed to enjoy catching up.
All the guys that were in dental school together - I love how the photo booth pictures turned out! So much fun!
Me with Tracy and Lauren, Huntersville friends.
Seantel and Claire.
Brett, Kimberly, and Nathan. Thanks Brett for picking up the wings!
The Rigneys and Longs.
A few guests had already left at this point, but Stephanie is a champ at taking self-timed group shots. Cooper even made this one!
And a goofy one to cap off the night. Thanks again to each and every one of you that came - you truly made this a special night for Mike!!
