Surprising Abby

A couple of weeks ago, Nathalie and Ann and I decided that we wanted to throw a party for Abby's birthday. We decided that we needed to make it a surprise party and since Abby wasn't planning to do anything special for her birthday, we figured we'd really be able to shock her. We kept the guest list relatively small, and invited only women. We tried to make sure that the girls who came would keep the party going.

Food for the party included:

• Arugula, Walnuts and Dried Cranberries Salad
• Crudites with Spinach Dip
• Charcuterie, Cheese and Crackers
• Curried Chicken & Walnut Triangles
• Beef Skewers with Soy Ginger Dipping Sauce
• Smoked Salmon with Lemon and Capers
• Cosmos, wine and champagne to drink.

At work on Friday, we almost gave away the secret, but managed to keep Abby in the dark. Ann and Nathalie came home with me and we got started straight away in setting up the party. Anastasia was beautifully behaved and Myney helped out by keeping her occupied while we worked in the kitchen. Our guests began arriving about 7:30 and we were completely set up by 8:00.



We made personalized confetti using a bunch of really cute pictures of Abby. Combining that with some regular colored confetti helped to finish the look.



We hung out in the dining room while we waited for Abby to arrive. When she did, we managed to get a picture of the shock on her face.



Once she realized what was happening (and finished the phone call with her mom), she helped herself to a cosmo and got down to learning how we'd managed to pull this off and wander through the house to see what we'd put together for her.



We all settled in for an evening of chatting and a few games of Catchphrase. Julie told us about her meeting with the dating counselor, I shared the story of how Orlando and I met, and Abby shared the story of the Baby Mama Drama.

Orlando got home just before midnight, and the first few guests started to leave about then. We said good night to Julie and Nancy, and the rest of us managed to hang out for another couple hours. When we finally said good night, I sent Orlando upstairs while I got a little bit of cleaning done before going to be. All in all, a very fun night.