I always thought I would have boys, but I was given 3 beautiful daughters instead. Raising daughters can be trying to say the least, they are emotional, moody, and sometimes stubborn. But luckily they are also very thoughtful, caring, fun to hang with and very sweet. For my 50th birthday, my wonderful daughters went over and beyond what any mother would expect her daughters to do. It will be a day I will always, always remember.
I kept being asked by my family what I wanted to do for my birthday, the big 50, and I just couldn’t decide. I knew I didn’t want a big party, but I felt the need to do something but I just couldn’t come up with anything. They kept asking me day after day, so I just told them my dream day… I would love a day at the spa, lunch with some friends, dinner at my house with just my family prepared by a chef and served by a waiter, and play a murder mystery game during dinner. Sounds good right? Well, to my surprise, those three girls pulled it all together and made my dream day happen.
I want to show you my wonderful day, captured with unprofessional pictures, some of them not too flattering, {which I am sure is going to make some of my family members irratated at me}, but hopefully it will depict the love my girls put into my special day. {settle yourself in, cause there are lots, and lots of pictures!}
My morning started out seeing this cute note made by Tiffany in front of my coffee pot {she knows that is the first place I go once my feet hit the floor} I say the letters O.M.G. a lot, so she made sure she put that on her sign LOL Yeah, turning 50 is OMG!
Breakfast was prepared by Shannon {and baby Carter}. Then I was told to get dressed and meet them in the garage. They said to bring a change of clothes but that was about it. Here I am looking confused but dressed and ready to go
Throughout the day, I was given these cute cards made by Shannon as to what to expect on my adventure
The night before, Shannon had sneaked over late at night and decorated my convertible {Shannon has a 5 month old baby, which means very little time to sleep. To take the time to go out late at night to do this just for me, just melts my heart} Dang I need to go get that car washed after seeing these pictures
My daughter Tara was the designated chauffeur and event director. {Daisy the dog was just trying to figure out what the heck was going on}
Then they gave me a boa and crown to wear to the spa which I reluctantly did. I think secretly they wanted to see their mom look goofy, a pay back of sorts LOL, One lady asked me at the spa if I was dressed up for Marti Gras…guess she couldn’t read the “birthday queen” tiara.
I was greeted at the spa with a glass of champagne and chocolate covered strawberries
After my spa treatments, we all had a lite lunch. Then I was whisked away to a Dry Bar in Del Mar to get my a scalp massage and a blow dry. I had never heard of a Dry Bar before, it is a salon that just does blow dries. It was pretty cool. And they served Skinny Margaritas along with the blow dry, yum.
The night before my birthday, I was given Tiffany’s surprise. She amazingly put together the Murder Mystery game, I was shocked! That was NO little accomplishment. She spent 14 straight hours of figuring out the characters, sending emails and printing out the script for all of us to use for our characters. They say to give yourself 6 weeks to do put together a Murder Mystery party, that kid did it in one day, and rocked it. Here is the youtube video she sent all of us. My niece Alexis did the opening line, and then Tiffany read the story.
Amazing right? Tiffany gave me the character of Janis, the younger woman wanna be actress/model of the murdered husband. I decided to do my best and play the part. I searched through my closet and found a dress one of my girls had worn for their formal back in the day when they were in high school. The dress was perfect for the part, something I would never of worn outside my house since it was a little risque for me, but I poured myself into it for the sake of the party. When I came walking out in it, Tiffany gasped! She said “Mom!!! That is the dress I wore my freshman year for Homecoming!” Even though she was horrified seeing me in her dress, I must say it felt pretty good as a 50 year old that I even fit into it lol. Here are most of us dressed up in our characters before we sat down for dinner.
Here I am getting prepared for my part {I was just goofing off here, I don’t drink gin from a bottle…well not when people are looking that is…}
My husband opted to be the Roy, the murdered person. So he had Tiffany put ketchup on him and took a picture. He always wanted to be an actor, he acted well for his part don’t ya think?
My nephew Brady was the accountant
My daughter Tara, the mystery writer author
My daughter Shannon, the sculptor
My son-n-law Nate, the motorcycle store owner
My daughter Tiffany, the lawyer
My nephew Connor the house manager
My sister and brother-n-law shared the doctor character
My friend Tammy the loner daughter who still lived at home
Tammy’s husband John, the inspector
And of course Carter just hanging out enjoying the festivities. A HUGE thank you to my niece Alexis who took all these pictures for me!
I have to tell you, we had a BLAST doing this murder mystery game. Yeah, we didn’t have a lot of time to prepare for our parts, which is why we are always looking at our folders in these pictures, but it still was so fun! We laughed and laughed and just enjoyed ourselves in our characters. And not having to cook and be able to enjoy myself…priceless
For dinner the chef prepared a cream of cauliflower soup with a really cool egg in it {they gave us all the low down on the special egg but I can’t remember what it is called. It looked raw but it wasn’t}
Then a berry salad which I don’t have a picture of. And the main course was a Filet with a potato puree and prawns
Ending with dessert, banana foster and bread pudding
Then to top it all off, as if they hadn’t done enough, right? Shannon made picture collages called “then” and “now” with some cute notes and stuff from over the years. You can see in the boards in the background in this picture. She even gave everyone a trivia test at the end of the meal. My sister got the most correct, 12. My husband…he got 5 correct. LOL
{I don’t know if you notice it or not, but I say “seriously?” a lot on my blog, because I actually say it a lot. So from now on, when you read “seriously?” on my blog, this is the look I am giving}
This party was my dream, and my girls made it come true. I don’t know how in the world I got 3 wonderful daughters who are so thoughtful and caring, but I do know that I am the luckiest 50 year old mom in the world!
