Surprise!

Happily Ever After Begins at 30

About a month ago, I conspired with Tara's husband Lawrence to plan a surprise party.  I had an ulterior motive--it was an opportunity for me to meet all of Tara's running, pool and other friends she's told me about.  Also, I love surprise parties.  The fairy tale theme grew out of Tara's love of the movie Enchanted and it was so much fun, I will definitely repeat it.  Tara didn't look very surprised when she first arrived.  As it turns out, she was surprised but she had been so mad at Lawrence for dragging her to Río Grande instead of taking her to the restaurant she preferred that it took her a moment to recover.  Kudos to Lawrence for staying calm and cool under pressure and getting her there anyway.  

I think the pictures tell the rest of the story.  Without a doubt, it was one enchanted evening.  Thank you to Jes and Dave for your help, to Madeleine for covering for us when Tara called, to Mom for making the beautiful cake, to the guests for coming and participating in our charade, to the people who sent fairy tale advice and birthday wishes from far away and especially to Chris for your support and encouragement.  You may have played the Big Bad Wolf last night but you're my 24/7 P.C.

THE PREPARATIONS

For party favors, the girls and I made Hershey's Kiss cookies.  I wrapped them up with a bit of candy and attached a quote by Albert Einstein: "If you want your kids to be brilliant, read them fairy tales.  If you want them to be geniuses, read them more fairy tales."

Everyone picked a fairy tale character for the evening.  

I played the fairy godmother and Chris' choice is below.

THE GRAND ENTRANCE

GETTING STARTED ON HAPPILY EVER AFTER

What's Puss (in Boots) thinking standing so close to the Big Bad Wolf?

We did two activities as part of the fun.  The first was a fairy tale based quiz that guests had to answer the way Tara would answer it.  One question asked which of the seven dwarves Tara would be--she picked "Sleepy".  Another said "If Tara were to run into a Big Bad Wolf, she would: a) run away, b)  tell him a joke, c) challenge him to a foot race, d) encourage him to accept Jesus Christ as his personal savior or e) kiss him.  Tara put "a"--everyone else put "c" or "e" so the ruling's still out on that one.  

The other thing we did was ask people to come with a bit of advice for Tara's next 30 years.  It was supposed to refer to a fairy tale or include a quote from one and end in "happily ever after".  Lawrence's sister Clare won the advice contest for her words about not letting little things like a pea under the mattress get to her.

Shiny Happy People

Jes and Dave or Snow White and little Puss

Happily Ever Aftering

Lawrence's big sis' Clare, Baby Bear "Evangeline Grace" and Tom

Lawrence and Tara with long-time friends Chris and Sarah

Dave and his Mama Bear

Running Princesses and Mike

Next stop--Philly for 26.2

Some of my peeps (to quote our new family muse)

The clock strikes twelve back at C.K.

A perfect ending