Mom's Birthday Celebration

I realized last year that in my lifetime, I had never really planned anything for my mom's birthday before. But looking back on all the amazing parties she's thrown for me during the years, including the planning and help surrounding my wedding last year, my sister and I felt it was due time to pay her back and do something for her. Not to mention, my mom needed a pick-me up after a difficult year of changing schools where she worked, and taking care of my grandma in her finals days. (This is not to diminish my dad's contributions and stress he's been under too! He deserves a huge thank you just as much as my mom.)

So with my mom's impending birthday, a few weeks ago my dad, sister, and I sent her this:

After a really tough year
a new one's begun
And we want to make sure
you have lots of fun

Your birthday is near
and we want to you know
you shouldn't plan a thing
we'll run the show

So kick back and relax
we've taken care of it all
Reserve September 15th
we hope you'll have a ball!

And so, that was all my mom knew.  She was told to be ready by 2:00 and we'd take care of it from there. We had a "light" (is it light if you overeat?) lunch of bread, grapes, cheese, and shrimp cocktail at my sister's place and then began our day by heading out to Pinnacle Ridge Winery for some wine tasting!

We bought three bottles of wine here! I made sure to bring plenty of (personalized) water bottles along so we wouldn't get too loopy or dehydrated at the wineries:

With her actual birthdate instead of the 15th

After that, we headed over to Clover Hill Winery for some more tasting! We liked this place much better. It was prettier, larger, and had a better selection of wine.

 

The Family :)

We knew that two wineries would be enough wine tasting for my mom...she's a lightweight. We had a little time to kill before our dinner reservation, so we headed over to Grim's Greenhouse Farm Market which was right across the street. I just love places like this in the Fall!

We had dinner reservations at The Grille at the Bear Creek Mountain Resort and Conference Center. My mom was super surprised when her good friends started to arrive with gifts in hand! Below, Beth (in blue), is showing off her "Bear Creek Mountain" t-shirt, compliments of the restaurant. What I didn't catch on camera was the waitress spilling an entire tray of drinks at our table, and onto Beth (who was wearing a white blouse no less) when we arrived. It was a bit of a scene, but the waitress and restaurant handled it really well and will reimburse Beth for any cleaning or replacement of her white blouse.

 

After our amazing dinner...

My sister, Melissa, enjoying her burger

My mom made an impromptu speech thanking everyone for being there and surprising her

And then the gift opening began...

The restaurant manager and hostess even brought these flowers to my mom because she mentioned she liked them when we arrived! The restaurant was a fantastic place, I couldn't have been happier with the service and the food, even despite the little drink mishap!

To close out the night, we headed back to my sister's house for cake and ice cream!

Mom showing off her new apron

My husband is very helpful :)
Carrying all her gifts to the car!

We ordered a Chocolate with Peanut Butter Cream cake from Emmaus Bakery, and it was delicious. I had always heard that this bakery was amazing, and now I can say that I agree!

All in all it was a successful day, and everything went mostly how we hoped it would go! Most importantly, my mom had an awesome time, and that's all we could have hoped for.

Happy Birthday to a loving and deserving Mom, we love you very much!

Flowers from her friends, Christine and Jim's, garden