Fiesta!

Sean turned the big 3-0 Saturday, and to celebrate we had a surprise fiesta! It just so happened he was in North Carolina most of last week, so it was the perfect opportunity to plan and prepare for the party. 

For my escape I told Sean that Jackson and I wanted to go finish up some birthday shopping at the mall (the party was friday night). After everyone arrived at the clubhouse, I called him and told him I thought I had left my iPod in the gym (in the clubhouse) that morning and asked if he could please go check. He ran over so fast we barely had time to turn the lights off! In fact, he thought he was going to rush in and out so fast, he left Bode at home :)

Needless to say, he was definitely surprised! He told me he was confused because as he walked up to the clubhouse door he could see a reservation notice and people standing in the dark. He was afraid it was a surprise party for someone (not realizing it was for him!) and everyone was going to yell "surprise" to the wrong person. When we flipped on the lights and he looked around, he realized these were our friends and the party was indeed for him. :)

We had fake mustaches for the hombres at the fiesta. Sean's was muy especial!

 Bode wanted in on the action!

We kept it low-key and had a good time with lots of food and good conversation. It was fun just getting everyone together and hanging out! My friend Ashley was awesome enough to take a few pictures during the party for me since I was all over the place, and I am so glad! She took WAY better pictures than I could have, even though she kept unnecessarily apologizing for them due to bad lighting, etc.

The main reason I chose fiesta as the theme is because Sean's favorite food is Mexican. We had Cafe Rio knock-off salads/burritos--not really Mexican I guess, but still yummy :) 

I did have a near disaster about 15 minutes before the party was supposed to begin. I had a big crockpot FULL of black beans that wasn't warm enough yet so I put it on the stove... hahaha do you see where this story is going?! Well, the crockpot literally exploded (sounded like a canon). Black beans were EVERYWHERE. Apparently I missed the memo that you can't put a crockpot on the stove. Luckily there was a new neighbor in the clubhouse checking out the gym and he helped me clean it up in record speed (welcome to the neighborhood!) My friend Kristol rushed a mop over and got things back in order before the party started. Crisis averted. 

For dessert we had a few different kinds of cupcakes (first two were gf)

Mexican hot chocolate

Dulce de leche

And funfetti in the back!

The frosting for the dulce de leche cupcakes was the winner for me. It is called a "swiss meringue buttercream" where you mix in dulce de leche. I almost didn't make it because the recipe scared me. It was easier than I thought it would be and I LOVED it. I could've eaten an entire bowl of it. Try it!

Time to blow out the candles!

 Trying on dad's special 'stache.

I was pretty excited about the Mexican sodas :) There is just something special about drinking out of a glass bottle!

We had such a fun night! Thank you SO much to everyone who came to celebrate with us! And thanks to everyone who helped me pull this off. Our friends and family rock. 

Feliz Cumpleaños Sean! :)