Surprise!

A few weeks ago we were in Logan visiting Mike and Stacie and their cute new baby Ty. Angie was over and we were just talking and got on the conversation of mom's birthday. Mike said something about her being 60 and I laughed and said, she's not 60. Angie started laughing and said, "that's exactly what I said to Mike!" But as we all sat and calculated from the year she was born...sure enough...she is 60. (Can I say how AMAZING she looks for 60! I thought she still had a few more years til that benchmark) So, then we all started feeling guilty for not doing something bigger for such a big birthday. So we decided to start brainstorming for a birthday present for mom since she is such a hard person to buy for.

Angie sent out an email to everyone (including dad) as to our thoughts for everyone to start thinking about something for us to do, whether a party or surprise luncheon or something, but apparently dad's email was automatically sent to mom's email address. We had gone to Burley the week before and Mike and Stacie had come down for Sunday dinner. We were sitting in the kitchen when mom read the title to the email "mom's birthday (dad don't forward this to mom, please!)" She claimed she didn't read the email, but now our cover was blown and we knew it would be that much harder to really surprise her. When we got there that weekend she was planning on painting because she only had 1 day to paint her kitchen and family room before she was on babysitting duty for my brothers. Unfortunately, we had too much fun playing and the painting never happened.

They had plans to go to Florida for the Sun n' Fun (a fly-in air show) in Florida and as they were heading to the airport I called mom to see if they needed me to drop them off. She said no and we were just chatting. I asked if she got her painting done and she said no, but that she had ordered carpet and so she'd have to do it when she got home. The idea bulb went on in my head.

Soooo, I called up Angie and told her my thoughts, she laughed and said that they were planning on going to Burley to look at a new vehicle for Rob and that she had thought of doing something while they were there. So, we decided it would be perfect. We could go fix up their house a little while they were gone and completely surprise them.

Our first hiccup was a phone call I got from Angie as we were passing Snowville. She informed me that they were there at mom and dad's and that the basement bathroom was backed up and that she and Rob were cleaning up sewage. We were already committed at that point and I figured Dan could figure it out once we were there. She couldn't get a hold of dad to try to fix it. Eventually we got another phone call saying that she had talked to dad and just shut off the water to the basement. They had cleaned everything up and we looked good to go. Erin had been over and was eager to assist, so she took Angie's boys Jack and Jordan to her house to help keep kids out of the way.

So, we started to work. We had talked to Luke and decided the best way for them to help was to keep busy hands away (aka Austin) but it would be great if we could keep messes at a minimum so Jenny had everyone over on Saturday for lunch. Wow...that is a lot of kids! It was so fun to see their new house and let all of these munchkins help break it in:)

We finished the painting in the family room and weren't sure if the color would look good in the kitchen. We decided to leave that up to mom but knew we needed to do something more. Mom had talked about painting this hutch in her kitchen to try to break up all of the oak. She had even bought a kit to do it. We decided to take on this project as well. At this point, Adam and Luke thought we were CRAZY. (we thought we might be too, but decided if dad hated it at least he could be mad at us, not mom!) So, we started the next part of our Hansen home Makeover.

It turned out so much better than we had imagined! It brightened up the kitchen so much! We got the stamp of approval (and financial backing) from Adam and Luke and knew mom and dad were going to love it. We felt even more excited when we called Mike (who happened to have a business conference at the same place and time as my parents in Florida) and let him in on what we were doing. We were worried he would feel bad that he wasn't here to be a part of it, to which he laughed and said that he was heading to Downtown Disney with mom and dad for dinner and that he didn't feel bad. He also said mom kept talking about how much painting she had to do when she got home and how mad she was that she had to go home and deal with a mess in the basement when there were so many other things she needed to do. Now we knew it was a perfect surprise.

We all hid down the stairs when they walked in so we could hear her reaction. Apparently all of the kids knew they were supposed to hide, so instead of just going downstairs, they were hiding behind couches and whatnot downstairs, too. When mom walked into the kitchen, the kids ran upstairs and gave her hugs. It was amazing how many kids just kept coming up the stairs!!! Her and dad both loved it.

Erin and Jenny helped get some yummy food together for lunch and mom's favorite German Chocolate Cake. I think all the grandkids were just as excited as grandma and grandpa.

Needless to say, they loved it. I mentioned to mom that Dan was willing to change out her tile on her fireplace too and she couldn't go fast enough to pick out tile before he changed his mind! So, they got a new tile job and dad sent a picture of mom painting her mantle to match the cabinet in the kitchen.

A HUGE shout out to our amazing hubbies who kept the masses of children out of our way while we completed this amazing surprise for my mom. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate so all these kids were cooped up in the house the whole time...but luckily cousins are the best of friends so it was great. My kids thought it was the best spring break ever.

Happy 60th birthday, mom!