Surprise!!!....

....we all yelled as Emily slowly walked in the door of our apartment, with Peyton jumping at her feet saying Hello.  Emily was surprised but seemed to be more in a daze by all the people and food that was now in our apartment...

3 weeks earlier...
I came up with the brilliant idea of throwing Emily a surprise party for her birthday on February 11th.  I thought it might be fun to do a theme party and decided on the idea of "Casino Night".  Games, food, friends...sounds like a great time.

Let me tell you one thing.  Planning a surprise party is HARD WORK!!!  Don't get me wrong, I had a blast doing it, but it was tough. 

So I started planning, looking on sites for decorations and theme party ideas.  I found great stuff, but I wanted to keep the budget under control.  So I found a blackjack mat, craps mat and a bunch of wall decorations to use throughout the apartment.  Very cool.  We didn't use the craps mat (lack of tables) but it is something I will keep for the future.  I also found some cool party favors, including $ sign beaded necklaces, poker chip keychains and giant bling $ sign chains for Emily and myself.  Of course, all of this stuff had to be delivered to a co-workers house, so Emily did not suspect anything. 

Another point....It is hard to plan a surprise party at your house when the person DOES NOT LEAVE!!!

Oh well.  I started working on things at work, including the welcome sign, fabricated to look like the Welcome to Las Vegas sign...turned out pretty cool.  Then I started to create the guest list and steal phone numbers from Emily's phone when she wasn't looking.  All in all, we had about 25 people there, including family and friends who we have not hung out with in awhile.

Day Of...
So I took a half day on Friday, the 11th, to prep the apartment for the party.  Little did I know that I wouldn't sit down until 11 pm.  I was exhausted.  So I left work and immediately went to several stores to get the needed supplies.  I got home about 1 o'clock and started cleaning the house.  I moved most of the stuff to the basement or in our room so we looked somewhat civilized.  Then Timmy showed up around 3 and helped me move the big stuff around.  Em's dad and aunt showed up and helped me even more, which I really needed (apparently, haha). 

About 5 o'clock, I decided I better start cooking.  I made quesadillas, mini paninis, taco dip, pizza, cheese and crackers, etc.  The paninis and quesadillas took forever, but I will say that our George Foreman was worth it's weight in gold.  I finally finished cleaning the kitchen and cooking around 6:50.  Finally showered and ready, I took a step back and looked around and realized....Wow, I did it!!!  Not to mention that the food was delicious and everything was hot at the same time (very tough to do).

Party was great.  Lot of fun playing blackjack and pong.  Betting chips and necklaces and Macy's cards (pong game that was High Roller).  People had a blast (so they told me, might be lying).  Everyone left by 1 and I was beat.  So much fun though and Em had a blast.

I want to thank:
-Jenn for the cake
-Tim, Tom and Auntie for helping set up
-Don and Chese for artichoke dip (great!!!)
-Margaret for fruit)
-Everyone for coming

Here's some pics: