Yesterday we celebrated Stacey’s 40thbirthday party with family and a few of her Phoenix friends. In keeping with her passion for margaritas, we had a taco bar plus plenty of fresh guacamole to go with the chips. And no party for Stacey would be complete without a Costco cake – so yummy with the cream cheese frosting. Totally decadent!
The party was supposed to be a surprise but when she, Len and Alex got to Mike’s house on Thursday night and discovered Burl and Cindy there, she knew something was up. To further reveal the plans, Burl got a call from Mike on Friday about the party just as Burl, Stacey, Len and Cindy were waiting to tee off for a round of golf. He walked away from the group to talk but since Burl never uses his “inside voice” on his cell phone, it wasn’t hard for Stacey to hear comments about her party.
However, we weren’t going to reveal everything to her so on Saturday afternoon we sent Alex and Stacey to the pool and told them to not return until close to 5 – at which time, she was led blindfolded through the house and upstairs so she could shower and dress and then got to join us when the party was ready to begin!
We made a “This Is Your Life” book for her on Snapfish and then created a CD full of photos from throughout her life and played that all evening. Len brought along a photo album of their first year of marriage and we placed photos all around the party area.
One of the highlights of the evening was Cindy’s gift which allowed us to help create a time capsule to be opened on her 50th birthday. We all wrote messages to her either making predictions or telling about our lives now and then inserted them into a narrow-necked vase. In 10 years, she can take a hammer to the vase and enjoy reading all the comments. I can guarantee you this idea will be copied in our family for upcoming significant events – births, weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, etc.
This morning the B&B cleared quickly of guests – Cindy had a 6:45 a.m. flight to San Diego and Stacey and her family were on the road by 7:00. I took Devin for a long walk in the stroller while he took his morning nap and then we all went to late church. Annie needed to return some shoes for Devin to the Stride Rite store in Anthem so after church, she and I took Devin and went out to eat and to shop. My success rate was zilch until the last store when I hit payday for the grandkids at Gymboree. I got stuff for all 4 of the younger set for $30 – gotta love the bargain!
Speaking of bargains, by time I arrived in Phoenix, Burl had already scoped out the Antigua outlet and insisted he take me there to shop yesterday. Every piece of women’s clothing was reduced to $5 so in order to make my hubby happy, I purchased several items – 3 golf skirts, 3 shirts, a sweater and a jacket. It’s a good thing Burl only had one carry-on bag because he may need another one on the way home to take all the loot!
Even though it’s only a 3-day vacation, I’m making the most of my time out here and looking forward to being here for several weeks next winter.
