Renee's 75th Surprise Party

I'll begin with a caveat... I function best when things are neat, tidy and organized. I have been unable to download pictures from my camera to the computer for a month and can't figure out why. We have cleaned off the hard drive, reinstalled the software, etc. Nothing. I am WAY behind with my blog, my scrapbooking and practicing with my camera. John was able to download a few of my pictures to his computer and we copied them to my thumbdrive, etc., etc. Here are a few events I need to document for family members out of state, the first being my mom's 75th surprise birthday party that I held at my house on July 25, 2009.
My mom's favorite colors are orange and red so I decided to use those colors as many ways possible throughout the party...

My mom's sister and brother and some of their family members were able to join us as well as one of my dad's brothers. All of my mom's grandchildren except for Collin (serving a mission in Puerto Rico) and all four great-grandchildren were able to be there too. Michelle and Steve were greatly missed!

The surprised 75-year-old (too bad she's blurry) thought she was coming to my house for a small, casual BBQ. She even brought a jar of her homemade dill pickles to share!

The food (and pickles at lower left) and family...

The cake...

The candle (good thing I didn't try to light 75!)...

Happy 75th mom!!! Love you...