Happy 70th Birthday Mum!

An excercise that even the Secret Service should be in awe of...Dad, the legend, pulled off the most awesome suprise party ever for my Mum's 70th Birthday!! He managed to organise family from all over Australia. Thankfully they decided to break up the surprises over a week, my brother and his family arriving a week before the event, my sister and brother-in-law from Woorooloo arrived the night before, I turned up the morning of her birthday, and my sister and brother-in-law from Perth finished off the family reunion at Mum's surprise cruise....yes that's right, her surprise cruise!!
The hilarious lead up to the event....with one surprise after another, poor Dad began to hide everytime somebody new turned up....Mum suddenly developed a habit of punching him in the arm! Then amongst all the excitement, Mum had decided she was going to organise a birthday breakfast for herself at Coolalinga, inviting everybody she knew...so you can imagine her annoyance when told one of my sister-in-laws had organised a classic car ride to an unknown destination. "What about my breakfast? People will be waiting for me!" She finally lost the plot when the car arrived at the Cullen Bay jetty with all the family there to greet her, all the grandkids standing outside the car...."Get out of the car Nanna!"

The cruise was absolutely awesome, a full tour of Darwin Harbour, complete with a personal concert put on by nephew who played Stairway to Heaven on his guitar.
The family photo is fantastic! We had 8 out of the 10 kids from my family there with their spouses and some of the grand children, we really could have done with a wide angle lens! Mum seemed to really love this surprise, Dad did an astounding job organising it, not to mention keeping it quiet considering the number of people involved!!

We had the obligitory "Dinner at the Wharf". A Woods family tradition. As you can see, Mum had a ball ,as she always does, courtesy of my Sister bringing her a "party bag". I looooove my Mum's awesome sense of humour, and her ability to just let loose and have fun where ever she is!

All in all I think the whole day was fantastic, and not in the least what Mum expected...which is pretty cool since she is a pretty switched on old gal!

Well done Dad!! This is why you are my mentor!