Nana's Surprise Birthday Beach Trip!!!

This past May,

we did something we haven't done in a while,

quite a while.

All 12 of the member of our immediate family,

on my side

(mom & dad, baby sis & middle sis and her hub and baby)

all piled into the same house...

for the WHOLE

weekend!

My sisters and I planned it.

My mom was turning...

well she probably wouldn't want me telling her age,

anyways, it was a multiple of 10,

so a biggish birthday.

So we got dad on board,

booked the house 

(thanks to my sister's inlaws)

made the plans,

plotted to deceive,

and 

made it happen.

We are all SOOOO busy,

my baby sis was headed to Colorado for the summer

and everyone was just all over the place,

so it was not hard to tell mom

that we might not be able to all get together to 

celebrate her upcoming birthday on May 10th.

But secretly,

behind the scenes,

we wanted to do something special.

We thought about a big party,

or dinner with lots of family and friends,

but ultimately decided,

what would mean the most to my mom 

would be to have all of her kids and grandkids together.
For the first time in years,
and possibly the last time in a long time.

So we got dad in on the plan.
The baby sister was going to come up with an excuse
to go to the beach for the "day" on Friday.
Then there was discussion of staying in a bed and breakfast for the night,
before coming home on Saturday.
Then mom thought we were having a cook-out at her house,
with family and friends,
that Saturday night.
Dad was in charge of "calling everyone",
didn't happen (wink, wink).

Thursday, I baked up a storm,
making
 a birthday cake for mom (Sour Cream Pound Cake)
 & my oldest (Mounds Cake

).

Then, Friday,
my dad,
my middle sis,
and I,
all coordinated our timing
and met at the beach within about 15 minutes of each other!
Shockingly since we were all coming from different directions
and travel times!

Mom and my sis were having froyo.
So we all surprised her at the froyo place.
We let the 5 grandkids walk in first,
Mom was shocked.
Then when she saw dad...
she got tears in her eyes.
At first,
she thought that we had all just come for ice cream
(long trip for ice cream)
then when she saw dad,
she realized something else was going on!

I just *knew* she had a suspicion,
but I guess I get my occasional aloofness
honestly.
(love you ma!!!)

And since we were at the Froyo place,
the rest of us
HAD to get some!!

 Then we went to unload at the beach house.

And see how much
stuff
and
kids
 we could
put into an elevator!

We got 5 people

and

a whole corner of stuff.

We took Nana out to the 

favorite beach restaurant!

On our way, 

we stopped for a photo op!

Nana & Papa and all the grands

(this looks Christmas card worthy to me!!

or

a Facebook profile or cover photo! haha!)

Nana & the girls

Papa telling the big boys one of his tall tales.

Papa and the girls!

Tony Cruz sad because I wouldn't let him drink Texas Pete!

Sister Cousins!

That night we decided to share the

humongous Easter Bunny that we were given.

One

bite

at

a 

time!

The next morning,

a quick elevator ride took us down 

to wake up sleeping beauty...

By all these cuties!

Wake Up Aunt Mimi!  

We are ready to go to the beach!!!

We spent the day on the beach.

After dinner,

we celebrated the birthdays!

(That is an awful lot of candles!!)

Nana wouldn't let us put candles in hers.

Then the birthday boy attempted to cut the cake!

 Apparently the chocolate ganache was a little hard to cut.

After our bellies were full of cake,

 some of us were so worn out,

we fell asleep on the hardwood floor!

The next morning,

after we got out hair brushed by daddy,

we headed home.

We had a great trip!