A birthday mama

Posted on | August 3, 2012 | 1 Comment

We travel every weekend. That’s an exaggeration. But barely. We do travel very often, and it’s always for great reasons. This past week, I was at the beach with family. Tay could only make it on the weekends due to work, but it was a lovely vacation, and it is the only one I get all year. So I soaked it up as much as I could and enjoyed the hell out of it.

But there was one thing looming over me the entire time….my mama’s birthday.

My dad called me a couple months ago to say he wanted to do something for mama’s birthday but wasn’t sure what she would like. He needed my help getting everything set up. He provided the credit card. I provided the planning. Kind of like when I was social chair for ADPi except even more pressure because the party was for my mama and not a bunch of friends who would be too drunk to care if the center pieces were pretty or not. The other issue was the fact that I live two and a half hours away, so I knew decorating wasn’t really something that was super feasible. And also? My parents are very reasonable with money, and a party that cost thousands and thousands of dollars wasn’t happening. They would rather spend money on a vacation or something for their house instead of a $275 chocolate fountain. So. Budget. Distance. And ohemgee, my mama does so much for us, this has to be okay!

I did what any twenty-something who is looking to book a good party does. I whipped up a surprise party, where friends would fill in the gaps of the lack of decorations, settled on our favorite local restaurant, bought a few bouquets of pretty flowers and some streamers, and had my sister get an extra-large ice cream cake from Dairy Queen.

BOOM.

Mom had no idea. We arranged to have the party on the Saturday after the beach trip. We were all tired from driving and lugging around sleepy babies, so it was the perfect excuse. The old, “Oh, we don’t feel like cooking or cleaning tonight. Let’s just go grab some dinner.” Of course, my nana, unable to keep anything super secret, cried as we poured a glass of wine beforehand and cheered mom to her birthday. Then she insisted on getting pictures.

Friends came from all around; Charleston. Columbia. Cutting vacations to Boston short. Some having to drive all that way back that night. They all came to celebrate this woman we so love.