More than a week later and I've finally recovered enough to write about it -- Mom's surprise 60th birthday party! The whole event was a huge success, but I am retiring my party planning hat at least for a while. I don't know how we pulled it off.
And it really was a "we." Dad launched the idea in April during a brief clandestine meeting over Cars cake. Our mission: To pull off something special and unique for Mom. Ryan came up with the idea of a moving party on wheels, aka, a party bus. Believe it our not, there's actually a company in Birmingham that rents 24-person buses, like the kind used for rockers on their tours (more on this later).
The idea was to create a party that honored Mom's life and the things that she loved. Megan, Ricky and Dad worked hard to pull together details (and keep the whole thing a secret, which is no small task when it comes to my mother). Then, minus one small glitch (well not so small but it makes for a funny story now) we pulled it off.
The plan unfolded a week ago when my sister and Ricky came to town with their new puppy, Penny Lane. Ryan flew in late at night and totally surprised Mom. On Friday night we had a family dinner at Prairie Fire Grill, a very yummy restaurant (their fried green tomatoes are so good and I don't even like tomatoes). There we caught up Shaw style (discussing various sickness episodes at Epcot ... "Remember that time I passed out in front of the Mexican Village - awesome tacos!") and surprised her with some treats, including the revelation that she would spent the next morning at Ross Bridge Spa (along with me, Megan, Ryan and Ryan's friend Kandice, who danced with him at Disney years ago and drove in from TN). She also got a beautiful one of a kind sapphire necklace from Dad.
We woke up at the crack of dawn to go to Ross Bridge, where we all got facials, manicures and pedicures, 
and relaxed in their great jacuzzi. Of course I was working hard to unwind as I was swaddled in lavender scented towels because I knew that the biggest surprise was to come. As we were getting pampered, the party bus was pulling up outside my parents' house, and family and friends were getting on board. When the bus pulled up outside Ross Bridge, we said, "There's your ride." The look of confusion and surprise was priceless, and the fun continued as she saw friends and family get off the bus one by one wearing their custom made "R: The Rosemary" monogrammed hats.
The bus was tricked out -- leather seats, surround sound and two separate rooms. The bus driver told us that it was rented to Tommy Lee as a tour bus for a month last year. I'm sure his parties were a little different than ours. Our first stop, which of course was a surprise until we pulled up underneath it, was Birmingham's own Statue of Liberty. The replica, which was built in the late 80s, is next to a Boy Scout building and park, and we had a picnic lunch underneath the closest thing we could get to Mom's native land.
As we were leaving to go to our next surprise destination, right around the time I was starting to say, "Wow, 
everything is going so well!" the one thing I couldn't have predicted (of course) happened: the bus wouldn't start. The group took it well (the wine helped) but I was having a quiet mini-breakdown knowing that we had to pick up Nate and get to downtown Homewood within a very short time frame. I had visions of them sending six cabs and trying to enjoy the rest of the day celebrating "party taxi" style. Amazingly, it turns out that there are two fully equipped rock and roll tour buses in Birmingham, and the second one was sent out to pick us all up. We transferred ourselves and our gear and booked it off to destination #2: a private performance at the Children's Dance Foundation by the Birmingham Irish Dance Association.
About ten Irish dance students and their teacher performed traditional Irish dance for our group, and at the end everyone got up and they taught us a jig. I got out of the whole thing by being the photographer. Speaking of, this is a picture of our entire group on stage at the Foundation. People came from all over, including Gloria and Don Browne, Neighbors Emeritus, my cousin Maureen and her three girls and Mom's good friend Mary Catherine and her family.
Our last stop of the day was at our house to pick up none other than Nate. He had his faced pressed up against the window and was so excited when the bus pulled up for him. (Some of the neighbors came out too wondering what this huge random bus was doing on our cul-de-sac. We'll just keep letting them guess.) Nate enjoyed the brief ride to Grandma and Grandpa's house, and was especially excited to sit in the driver's seat and honk the horn. Once we parked of course.
The evening ended with a catered dinner by B&A Warehouse, which was so good. The kids (There were six
in all including Nate) played with the bag loads of bubbles my father wisely purchased for the event, and the adults ate a lot of food. I pretty much collapsed into a chair, feeling like I had been hit by a party bus. The celebration continued the next day as we feted Dad and Shane on Father's Day (holla!)
It was a great weekend. Mom does so much for other people it was really important for us to do something special and unique for her. Now the countdown is on for Dad's 60th ... only 10 more months to go! I wonder if they would consider renting out Yankee Stadium ...
(Lots) More Photos in Mom's 60th Birthday Album (to the right)