Mum’s 50th

Last weekend was my Mum’s 50th birthday.
It was a wild party.

Here is the story.

My Mum knew that something was planned but had no idea what was going to happen. My aunt Jude arrived from NZ a few days in advance. On the day of Mum’s birthday Jude took mum to a day spa. We had told her she was going somewhere with Jude at midday. Dad nearly told mum about the surprise party numerous times in the hours leading up to midday. Jude finally convinced Mum it was time to go, we dropped (un)subtle hints about needing a helmet, body armour etc, just to make mum feel really nervous about what was ahead of her.

We casually waved my nervous Mother goodbye, and as soon as the car was out of the driveway we ran back inside to set up the party. Jacob, Gerie, Dad, Lindsay and I all had our jobs organised. The Karaoke machine arrived, and Dad supervised its installation, set up the disco balls and lights downstairs. Meanwhile Jacob and Gerie tidied up all of upstairs and set up the cocktail bar. Lindsay drove around buying and picking up last minute stuff. I like to think I acted as the manager, making sure everything was running smoothly and to plan because I can’t actually remember what I did….baby brain.

By 3pm everything for the party was set up! We had planned to have everything ready by 4.30pm but were so efficient that we were ready early and had time to work on speeches, signs and just take a breather.

4.30pm Mum and Jude arrived back home. Mum walked into the lounge room and saw the upstairs of the house all set up for a party

Mum got very excited, and could hear music coming from downstairs.

We said to her, “okay, now you have to come downstairs”. We made a big fuss of making sure we had a camera downstairs before she went down. As I had hoped, mum began to suspect that there was a room full of people hiding down stairs waiting to jump out and yell “surprise” Here we are shepherding her down the stairs and she is protesting “but I don’t have any lipstick on”

She walked down the stairs, peeked around the corner and found

an empty room, with flashing lights and a spinning disco ball with an ABBA song being played on the Karaoke Jukebox machine.

We told her none of the guests had shown up.

The use the Karaoke machine was explained

We also told her that at 7pm she would need to be dressed up and ready. She then ran around the room hugging everyone. She managed to knock dad’s glasses off his face, you can see him trying to put his glasses on while she runs at Lindsay, the cameraman, to give him his hug.

It was nap time for everyone…because thats just the sort of family I belong to I went into Mum’s room to see what she planned to wear for the party. She said “just wondering, have you thought of food?”. I replied with “Oh no!! I will quickly run up to the shops and grab a bag of chips” and then ran out of the room. Meanwhile, my friends Mel and Jen were sneaking into the house with bags and boxes full of food. Mel had spent the past 2 days cooking all the food for the party.

My friend Lea arrived in the meantime to assist and be my moral support. Mum came up stairs and saw Lea and ran at her screaming “I thought so” then laughed hysterically while giving Lea a hug. After that bizarre and amusing reaction Mum turned towards the kitchen and saw Mel and Jen. She screamed in excitement and hugged them also. I think she was a bit worried that I had forgotten to organise food and was quite excited to see Mel (an awesome cook) in charge of the food with her sidekick Jen helping out.

Jacob had meanwhile set up the cocktail bar, ready to serve Tequila sunrises and Fruit tingles, mocktails etc etc.
At 7pm on the dot the first guests arrived and handed Mum 2 giant bags of old winter clothes. She wasn’t too sure what they were for. We pointed her to the basket we had set up in the doorway. We had asked guests to bring old winter clothes for homeless men instead of presents. It was something mum had asked for when we first talked about planning a party. She was very excited that I had remembered.

No one had told mum who was invited to the party, so each time the doorbell rang and she was sent to answer the door it was another surprise. Jacob with the assistance of his friend Pete were busy making everyone very cheerful with their cocktails. Mel was sending plate after plate of delicious food out of the kitchen and everything was going wonderful.

Mum looked to be having a wonderful time. A little while into the party 2 of her closest friends, Stephen and Trudy, walked in. They had just arrived in Sydney, flying up from Melbourne that evening just for the party. Mum was so excited, she did however tell them “you shouldn’t be here” before hugging them madly. Within 10 minutes there was another extra special surprise guest at the door. Dad got mum standing at the front door, with a group of us watching. Mum reached to open the door, looked at the surprise guest, screamed and then closed the door again in shock. She finally opened the door again. It was her friend Robyn who she had shared a flat with 25 years ago. They had lost contact over 15 years ago and Dad had managed to find her again.

It was then time for speeches, everyone gathered around in the upstairs living room.

Dad gave a lovely speech, about how he had first met Mum and how special she was.
Then it was Jacob’s turn, and he is terribly funny. Jacob had everyone laughing.

Mum then got up and thanked everyone. She then spoke about her love of violence

and drinking from oversized cups

(she didn’t really, but the photos suggest otherwise)

Then it was time for some Karaoke and Dancing. Teaching everyone how to use the machine proved a little difficult. So Mum told me to line up some dance songs. I lined up some popular dancing songs. No one knew the Nutbush, so Mel and I stepped in to educate
The Macarena then came on, and again there was a bit of confusion, so Mel, Gerie, Gerie’s sister Bec and I taught Mum and her friends the Macarena.

They all did fabulously considering the number of cocktails Jacob was serving upstairs.

The shoes I had bought to wear with my outfit were so painful I couldn’t wear them. My feet were too sore to go without shoes, and when you are pregnant you have the excuse to do things differently… so I found another option.

…crocs.