A Sweet 60th Surprise!

This year is a big one for birthdays!  Both my parents and the hubs parents turn 60 this year.  About a week and a half before my dad's birthday, my mom called to ask what I thought we should do.  "Have a party!"  I suggested...and we were off to pull off a surprise party...in about 12 days.

For those of you who have met or know my dad, you know getting something by him is no small task.  For those of you who don't know him, he's very smart, extremely curious and is known to figure out presents simply by looking at the box...sometimes even if it's camouflaged.  Pulling off a surprise party wouldn't be easy.  His birthday fell the Tuesday before Valentine's Day, so we set the day for the Saturday before.  Mom told him I would be coming into town to cook him a birthday dinner, a friend of him took him boat shopping in Raleigh for the day, which got him out of the house and with the hubs acting as my sous chef for the day, we pulled off all the food for the party!  When the moment of truth came, we (all 50 or so of us) waited patiently to see if Mr. Detective would really be surprised...

...and he REALLY WAS!!  I was pretty amazed that we pulled the whole thing off without him expecting anything.  My dad is a big golfer so I named the food with golf terms and made him a golf cake, vanilla with Bailey's ganache on the top and carrot cake (his favorite) on the bottom.

Thanks to Pinterest, I also had the idea to print off pictures of dad through the years in the shape of a "60".  I think it turned out pretty awesome!

A fun time was had by all!