Courtney's Surprise Party

I always throw my kids a surprise party when the turn 16. I am so proud of myself for actually surprising them. I was so worried with both of them that they would find out, but so far I have been very successful.

Of course it involved making up a reason to ground them from their phones, then writing all their friends numbers down and sending out mass texts to everyone.

Funny story... Courtney tried to be sneaky, she took her sim card out before she gave us her phone, then put it in an extra phone so she could still text. She didn't think she deserved to be grounded (which was probably true, I never have to ground her from her phone, but I was desperate). We never would have found out, but I needed her friends numbers, you can't get numbers off the phone without a sim card. We had a good laugh over it after the party.

It took months to plan. I would ask Courtney what she wanted to do for her birthday and she would tell me who she wanted to invite and what kind of food she wanted, thinking that she would have to plan it all herself.

I called Courtney's best friend Kayla and asked if she would help me out. She was very excited about it and told me that she would take her to a movie.

I was so excited when Friday morning arrived. I spent the whole day cleaning, decorating, cooking, and anxiously waiting for it all to begin.



It worked out perfectly, Courtney's friends all arrived on time and hid behind the door for her to come in. Courtney was totally shocked when she walked through the door. She was very confused and walked around in a daze for about 15 minutes until it hit her that I had thrown her a party.

Here is Courtney still in shock.





She has such great friends.









Here is my favorite decoration. We are all huge fans of "The Office". Courtney has even named her dog after Pam the receptionist. So a few months ago when they aired the episode where Dwight was in charge of making the birthday banner, I decided it would be funny to create a replica. (Only fans of "The Office" will appreciate this.)



Most of the girls from Courtney's soccer team came. Here is a picture of Jessica planning their defense (with tomatoes) for the game they had to play the next morning.



We had a fire going in the backyard,



pool downstairs,



and, of course, a ton of food!





Courtney's favorite foods: Hawaiian Haystacks, Pasta Pepperoni Salad, Costco's Mango Peach Salsa, and Pineapple Upside Down Cake.

I had so much fun planning this, I love to see my kids happy and having fun.



Happy Sweet 16 Courts!