Surprise 60th Birthday Party...

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we threw Janice (aka Mom-in-law) a surprise birthday party! Andy and I's job was to provide the invitations (designed by yours truly), BBQ pulled pork (one of our specialties), and baked beans Well the the only thing was we had invited over 200 people to her open house and weren't exactly sure how many people to expect. So I went and bought a case of pork shoulder (have you ever bought a case of meet before??? This was my first experience and when the butcher dropped it into my cart....I didn't realize I would have to be the one to put it in my car and get it into my house....ALL 68 lbs of it!!! YIKES!) I also bought LOTS of baked beans (5 large cans...see below) Anyhoo..... 5 croc pots later and many hours of slow roasting (and shredding) we had over 50 lbs of bbq pulled pork for the party. (btw...the other siblings had their hands full w/ countless amounts of all other kinds of food! This was definietly a team effort)
This is just a few picts of what our kitchen was filled with:





The decor:






So I volunteered to be the one to get her there. (which meant I had to lie to her) So I came up with a story that went something like this..... The Sommer girls were planning on having lunch (which she knew about) So I asked her if I could pick her up early and if she would stop w/ me at her church and she could show me around...since I "have" a wedding coming up there in March (that's the lie) and am not to familiar with the church.

Well she had an idea that there was something planned for her birthday (like a surprise lunch w/ her siblings or immediate family) but she had no idea we had rented out the banquet hall at the church and that we had invited over 200 of her family and friends. :) So the surprise was a success!!!
Here some picts of her walking in (clever me brought my camera in to have a "look" around the church)



















The main crew behind it all: