SURPRISE!!!!

I absolutely love planning! Planning has been a big chunk of the past 2 years, first my wedding, then Erika's wedding, then Ava was on the way.

Last fall, my sister in law, Erika, and brother in law, Kelly began the wonderful adventure of building a house on their property. Erika is one of my favorite people and I think we get along so well because she is alot like my sisters. As winter approached she became more anxious over dates, deadlines, and SNOW. Erika is organized and she figured because she and Kelly got all their ducks in a row well so should the weather. They would be in the middle of building this or pouring that and it would snow and stop everything. She was counting down to be in her new home. She and Kelly just wanted to have it built and be back in the valley.

She told me the end of February they would be living there, well it snowed like 3 feet one weekend in February, so she told me March was absolutely it, they would be in the house. And finally they moved. I dont know how she did it either, I think I would have even been stressed out with the weather and planning of it.

She was sooo excited to be in and slowly began decorating and cleaning. She has the cleanest house. She keeps on it. Once she was in, I thought 'she is so proud of this house why not celebrate?!?!' so the wheels because rolling and I emailed her mom to see if she would like to plan a SURPRISE housewarming party. I thought it would be awesome to have her family and friends there to celebrate this chapter in her life. She has helped me so much and been there for me that I thought it would be nice to do something for her. Her mom was on board and we asked our mother in law to help also.

So we planned a little bit, none of us had thrown a housewarming party before, bridal and baby have been the game for the last few years. We put our heads together and slowly got everything organized.

It worked out that her wonderful husband was going to be away for work so she would have absolutely nothing to do on the Saturday we had planned to have 20 women over to her house. Our mom in law got a spare key from Kelly and everyone kept it a secret. As hard as it can be to keep anything from Erika we did it.

Beth took her shopping and kept her in Hagerstown while we swarmed her house with food, gifts, and people! She came in the door asking 'What is going on? What is everyone doing here?' Ava went in her Aunt Erika's arms and I told her it was a housewarming party.

So Erika began showing off her wonderful home with Ava in tow. I think everyone had a good time. We got to catch up with some friends and family and look through her photo albums and listen to her decorating ideas for areas of the home that isnt finished yet. Her home is beautiful and she is only like 2 miles from me!