Surprise - Surprise!!

My wonderful friend Joleen had invited me over for a birthday dinner Wed  night - not Glenn, just me!  Because of our crazy schedules at work, we hadn't had much time to just sit and talk and relax!  So I was really looking forward to the evening!

 

I called Joleen about 4:30 and was surprised when she answered!  I asked her if I could come early since she got off earlier than expected and her response was "No - I want to finish up my charts and then I have to cook dinner"  I said OK and then proceeded to head out there at our pre-arranged time!

 

As I was driving through Florissant, I happened to glance over at the closed down restaurant and saw another friend, Jane, talking to a couple other people in a car - and I thought to myself that I would have to call Jane the next day and see what she was doing in Florissant!!

 

And when I arrived at Joleen's place, her and her daughter in law Jaime, opened the door with a SURPRISE!!!!  The house was decorated and a huge spread of food was laid out!!  But since I had arrived just a little early, the other people weren't there yet!!  I was totally surprised!!  (and yes, Jane was in that parking lot in Florissant, waiting for the other gals to arrive so they could car pool)

 

Zach, Jaime's husband, had written this in the driveway - use your imagination to turn it around as I couldn't get a good angle unless I took the pic from the steps!

 

Here's the spread of food that Joleen and Jaime had prepared -  and I took this picture before the other friends put out the food they had brought!!

What a fun time we had eating and drinking wine together!!  Joleen - Joyce - Karen - Bev - Jaime - Jane.  One friend was out of town so couldn't make it and another one was stranded in Colorado Springs due to the mudslide from yesterdays' rain.

I even received gifts!!  What a special night!!

After dessert of chocolate covered strawberries and key lime pie, we all posed for a picture that Jaime offered to take!!  Note that I really dressed up for my evening with Joleen - ha ha - I rarely wear anything very good to work because of all the granite dust so darn it, I had on my baggy old capris since I came straight from work!!

What a great way to start my birthday celebration!  Thank you Joleen from the bottom of my heart for putting this together for me - I TRULY loved every minute of it!!