Marie's 70th Birthday

My mom turned 70 the beginning of April, so we decided to surprise her with a HUGE birthday party. Oh, and we were even able to keep it a surprise.

On her birthday she and dad had to swing by the airport to pick up a gold streak from Procare. As they were walking into the terminal Bonnie was walking out with a baby that looked so familiar. We only let Grandma stand there for a second before I walked over, followed by my brother Danny.

Here is Grandma enjoying some fun birthday time with what she thought was her birthday surprise!

On her birthday we all gathered together for a night of Thai food. Chicken satay, Pad Thai, and Coconut, mushroom soup.

Blowing out 70 candles.


She found out that night that there was going to be a big party for her on Saturday...the garden club sent out a reminder and she accidentally saw it. It was Ok, since we did have a lot to do. We had just been trying to put off telling her until the next surprise showed up.

On Thursday morning we had to "drop an invitation by Island Air." I went in and tried to not seem totally awkward that I had no reason for being in the office, while Scot jumped in the car with mom.

Then the preparations began. We got a bunch of the food and cake done that day. Here are pics of us decorating the cultural hall.


Here is Ian helping cook.

Scot wrapping halibut in Prosciutto. Frankie was nice enough to get it for us.

In Alaska if there isn't room in the fridge you can just set it out in the 20 degree weather. Note the snow drift for keeping the soup cold.

So I almost forgot to include this little side story. Kent was suppose to get there early Saturday morning. He calls Friday night and says his flight had been canceled and that he wouldn't be there until 10:30 pm Saturday. I hurried and jumped on the phone and after a lot of calls and a lot of prayers we got him there barely in time. He had to drive all night to Boise and catch a 6:00 am flight out of there (luckily Uncle Lowell lives there). He made it in at 4:30 pm, just in time for a 6:30 birthday party.

The decorated gym.

The food...Lets see if I can remember the whole menu. There were gorgeous cheese trays, veggie trays, avocado salsa with chips, brochette with toasted baguettes, warm halibut spinach dip, salmon pate, little smokies wrapped in bacon with a brown sugar glaze, halibut bites wrapped in prosciutto, and Tom Kha Gai (Thai coconut mushroom soup). Chef Bonnie ran the kitchen and did an amazing job.

Then there was the desserts. We had a milk and cookie bar. There were chocolate chocolate chip cookies, white chocolate chunk craisin cookies, M&M cookies, Oatmeal Dark Chocolate chip cookies and butterscotch rice krispie treats and moms favorite store bought cookies.. Then we did a milk bar with moms antique milk jugs with cute labels for the different kids. Whole, 2%, chocolate, organic and soy.

Another shot of the gym decorated

We had a great turn out.

Serenading our mom with a mom medley of songs.

Alex playing the bagpipes happy birthday as people left.

Opening her presents at home

The crew.

Anybody that survived raising this crew deserves a big celebration!

The boys - yes I know its sideways and I might find time to go back and fix it later.

The siblings...it was so fun to be back together.

Can you tell?

The man who masterminded the whole surprise!

She makes 70 look good.